Sasha
by EclipsedbytheSon
Summary: Everyone's favorite foursome meets a girl with a tail and no memory. Who is she? And why is Shredder After her? Rated for mild swearing.
1. I

A/N: Hi everyone! This is my first TMNT fic, but I've been a fan since the cartoon show came out when I was like three. This fic takes place in a cross between the old-school cartoon universe and the first movie-verse. Hope you enjoy, and please, please, please Review! Thx—EBTS  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of its affiliates. I do, however, own Sasha, so you can't have her.  
  
I  
  
It was bitter cold on the city streets. A soft snow was falling from the sky onto the busy shoppers hurrying from store to store in the holiday rush. The winter holidays were still two weeks away, but everyone acted as if it was the last day to buy gifts.  
  
Sasha walked down the sidewalk, peering up at the buildings surrounding her. None of them looked familiar, nor did any of the street signs she passed. She scrunched her eyebrows together in concentration, trying to see if she could remember anything about where she was, who she was, what she was.  
  
A strong gust of wind came billowing down the street, sending hats and scarves flying. Sasha shivered and pulled her trench coat more tightly around her. Her fingers were numb. She had been outside all day, walking the streets, getting strange looks from people for her silver hair and her strange way of walking. She couldn't' help her hair color. From what she could tell, and what she seemed to remember, her hair had always been silver. As for the way she walked, she couldn't help it if she staggered a bit every now and then. She had to keep her tail tucked under her coat and wrapped around her leg so that no one would see it. She wasn't used to walking without the extra balance her tail gave her.  
  
Another gust of wind came, whipping Sasha's hair into her face. She had to get indoors, even if just for a little while. She looked up at the building she was approaching. It was some sort of big department store, with a name she did not recognize. Not that that was unusual anymore. She had been wandering the streets for two days, and she hadn't recognized anything yet.  
  
Sasha went in through the revolving doors and began wandering the aisles of clothes, linens, appliances, and toys. Everything was decorated for the holiday season. She unbuttoned the top four buttons on her coat, allowing herself to keep from getting over heated. As she turned one corner, she caught a sudden movement out of the corner of her eye. Without thinking, she spun to face whatever was sneaking up on her and her hand went instinctively to her side, as though to grab something that wasn't there.  
  
She found herself glaring at a dancing Santa Claus. He was wiggling his fat backside and singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" in a very jolly voice. Sasha's body relaxed and she turned away from the stupid novelty. Something in the back of her mind was set off and she found herself murmuring, "Humans come up with the stupidest things."  
  
She kept walking down the aisles, reveling in the feeling of warmth returning to her fingers, toes, and nose.  
  
"Excuse me, Miss, would you like to try our new fragrance?"  
  
Sasha looked up at the sales woman. Sales girl, more like it. She didn't look much older than Sasha. Twenty maybe. She was a college student, Sasha guessed, probably at NYU.  
  
"Yes, please," Sasha said politely, holding out her wrist.  
  
The sales girl sprayed a small amount onto Sasha's out stretched wrist. "It's called Tsunami Passion, I'm sure you'll like it."  
  
Sasha took a quick sniff of the sprayed area. It smelled good, like a flower garden. "Thank you."  
  
The sales girl nodded. "If you don't mind me saying so, Miss, that necklace is very pretty. Do you mind if I...?" She reached out to touch the silver cylinder that hung from a chain on Sasha's neck. Sasha nodded permission, and the girl ran a finger over the cylinder and its strange symbols of emerald and ruby. "What does it mean?" she asked.  
  
"I don't know," Sasha said as she gently, but quickly, pulled the token out of the girl's hand. "I don't remember." She the turned and walked away from the sales girl.  
  
Sasha headed back outside. The bitter cold afternoon had turned into a bitter cold night. She knew she had to find a place to sleep, but she didn't know where.  
  
She turned down a quiet side street and continued walking. There was no one on the street with her, but she still had the feeling that she was not alone. It felt as though she was being watched or...followed. Sasha stopped walking and looked behind her back down the street. It was empty. But she still was not certain that she was alone.  
  
She began to walk again, but this time instead of just feeling something, she heard it. Footsteps. Two, actually, as if someone had almost forgotten to walk silently. They came from somewhere behind her. She turned again, and still saw no one. But she knew someone was following her She looked around. This was a bad street to be on. Most of the lights in the buildings were out, there was little to no traffic, and the only light came from a few streetlights along the sidewalk. It wasn't bright enough to read, much less defend oneself.  
  
Still facing the direction she came, she began to walk backwards. She saw no movement within her line of sight, but that didn't mean that someone wasn't getting nearer to her. Sasha knew someone was going to attack her. She could feel it in her very being.  
  
She had no weapon or cell phone, or anyway to protect herself, and so she did the one thing she had left. She turned and ran.  
  
But she hadn't counted on her attackers to come at her from her front. After taking only a few steps two figures clothed entirely in black stepped out of an ally in front of Sasha and began running at her. Sasha stopped running and tried to back away from the figures, only to find herself backing into another person in black. The person behind her grabbed her by the arms, while another reached and tore open Sasha's trench coat .  
  
Anger flared within Sasha. This was not how someone treated her. She deserved more respect from these people.  
  
"Stop it!" she hissed as the man reached for her necklace. She kicked up at the his chest with all of her might, and he went flying backwards, hitting the wall behind him head first with a sickening crack.  
  
The man behind Sasha let go, but before Sasha could react, he hit her in the back of the head, and she fell to the ground.  
  
Things were going fuzzy. The pain in her head was excruciating. She tried to get up, but her head hurt too much. She didn't have to worry, though. As soon as Sasha hit the ground, four figures appeared, and three began to fight her attackers. The forth came over and knelt beside her. "You okay kid?"  
  
Sasha looked up at him through her blurred vision. The last thing she saw before going unconscious was a pair of kind eyes in a sea of green. 


	2. II

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of its affiliates. I do, however, own Sasha, so you can't have her.  
  
II  
  
"Boy, the Foot sure weren't expecting much of a fight out of her. Only four guys as opposed to the forty usually sent after us..." Donatello wiped is brow with the back of his hand.  
  
"Plus two on the roof," Leonardo added. He glanced over to his youngest brother kneeling beside the fallen girl. "How's she doin' Mikey?"  
  
"Not so good dudes. She got hit pretty hard on the head."  
  
"Lemme see." Donatello dropped to his knees beside his brother and the silver-haired girl. She was unconscious but she was still breathing, which was a good sign. "Well, she's not dead. But let's at least get her out of the cold."  
  
Raphael nodded and after checking the street for any more Foot, he opened a manhole cover and jumped in. Donatello passed the unconscious girl down to him, and the climbed down as well, with Michelangelo and Leonardo behind.  
  
Once in the safety and relative warmth of the sewers, they placed the girl down on the ground and began searching her coat pockets for something—anything—to tell them who she was. Her pockets were empty, without even a receipt to tell them where she shopped.  
  
"Her hair's awfully greasy," Don remarked. "She probably hasn't had a shower in a couple of days."  
  
"Meaning she probably hasn't had a place to shower," Leo said, nodding. "Com'n. Let's take her back to the lair. That bump on her head looks pretty serious."  
  
They headed back through the sewers to their home. Leo took the lead as usual, with Mikey right behind him carrying the girl. Don followed behind Mikey, and Raph took up the rear.  
  
When they returned home, they found their sensei waiting up for them. The TV was on, turned to the nightly news. Their friend April O'Neil was doing a report on something to do with holiday shopping, but there was no time to pay attention. The girl in Michelangelo's arms was top priority.  
  
"Who is she?" Master splinter asked as Mike and Don hurried the girl into the infirmary.  
  
"She was attacked by some Foot soldiers, Master Splinter," Leo said, bowing in respect. "We do not know her name."  
  
"Hey dudes!" Mikey called. "You gotta come see this! Quick!"  
  
Leonardo, Raphael, and Master Splinter all exchanged looks and hurried to the infirmary. The girl had been placed on one of the beds. Donatello had removed her trench coat and without it, everyone could see that she had a tail. It was about three feet long and black. It resembled the tail a cat might have, but it seemed to be prehensile like a monkey's, for when Donatello reached out carefully to move it, it wrapped briefly around his hand. Everyone, including Master Splinter, exchanged astonished looks.  
  
Splinter moved to the side of the bed and placed a hand on the girl's forehead. "She has a fever," he said. "I shall make some tea for her while you dress her wounds, Donatello. The rest of you, allow brother room to work."  
  
The other three turtles backed up a few feet, but did not leave the room with their master. Instead they watched as Donatello carefully applied something to the girl's head and then wrapped some cloth strips around it.  
  
"What do you think they wanted from her?" Raph asked after a few minutes of silence.  
  
Everyone shrugged.  
  
As he shrugged, Donatello caught sight of a silver chain around the girl's neck. He pulled on it, and out from under her shirt came a silver cylinder. It was about three inches long and half an inch in diameter. Symbols in ruby and emerald shone brightly on the surface. The chain wasn't long enough to fit over the girl's head, and curiously, Donatello saw no clasp or other way to get it off the girl's neck.  
  
"Maybe old Shred-Head wanted this?" Donatello suggested as he took the cylinder in his hand. His fingers closed around it, and the girl's hand suddenly flew up and grabbed his wrist. Her eyes remained closed.  
  
"Rambada Sashitaka Mettlean!" she whispered, sounding as if she were in pain.  
  
In surprise and fright, Donatello allowed the cylinder to slip from his hand. As soon as it left his grasp, the girl's hand fell limp from his wrist and landed by her side on the bed. She remained unconscious.  
  
"I guess she doesn't want you to touch her necklace," Rap snorted. 


	3. III

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of its affiliates. I do, however, own Sasha, so you can't have her.  
  
III  
  
Sasha awoke to a dull throb in the back of her head and the sound of a TV playing in a near by room. Groaning, she pushed herself up into a sitting position, fighting back a sudden urge to vomit.  
  
She looked around at her surroundings. She was in a room that contained four beds covered in white sheets. She herself was occupying one of the beds. Various medical instruments and monitors were scattered through out the room in a some-what organized chaos.  
  
"Where am I now?" she mumbled, swinging her legs over the side of her bed and slowly trying to stand on wobbly legs. "At least I remember something of what happened before I got knocked out this time." Her legs were shaky, and every movement she made brought the idea of loosing her lunch, but Sasha slowly made her way to the circular doorway of the room and peered out into the next room.  
  
She found herself looking into some sort of family room. At the far side were a television and a couch with its back facing Sasha. On the couch were four creatures that looked to be very large turtles wearing different colored masks around their heads. Curious, Sasha wobbled over to investigate the creatures further.  
  
A commercial came on the television as Sasha made her way across the room. The turtle in the orange mask stood up. "I'm getting a soda," he announced. "Any of you dudes want one?" He turned to go to retrieve the soda and his eyes landed on Sasha standing in the middle of the room. "Woah! You're up! You feeling okay?"  
  
The other turtles turned to see who he was talking to, and all eyed Sasha with a little bit of surprise and relief.  
  
"I'm feeling fine," Sasha said, uneasy with having four sets of eyes staring at her.  
  
"You probably shouldn't be up," said another turtle, this one with a purple mask. "You still had a little bit of a fever an hour or so ago, and your concussion won't be helped by your walking. Here, let's get you back into bed."  
  
He came forward and reached out to put a hand on Sasha's arm, but she pulled away. It wasn't that she was scared of him, even though she knew that giant talking turtles were not an everyday thing. She just didn't want to be touched.  
  
"Thank you for wanting to help me," she said politely. "But I can take care of myself." Sasha looked around the room and eyed a simple wooden door over one of the circular tunnel openings. "That's the way out, I presume?" She headed for the door, her mind set on leaving this strange place and its strange inhabitants so that she could get back onto the city streets and look for clues about her forgotten past.  
  
"Hold on there, you're not going anywhere." The turtle with the blue mask stepped in front of the door and crossed his arms over his chest. "You're sick and you have a concussion. Besides, it's below zero out. Now, if you need to get home to your parents, we can take you, but we're not letting you go out on your own. Do you want us to take you home?"  
  
"I don't know," Sasha answered, swishing her tail around behind her nervously.  
  
"You don't know? You don't know if you want us to take you home?"  
  
Sasha shook her head. "No. I don't know where home is."  
  
"You mean you're homeless?" The blue-masked turtle looked at her in confusion. The other three watched with similar expressions on their faces.  
  
"No," Sasha said, scrunching her eyebrows together in concentration. "I'm not homeless. At least, I don't think I am. I just don't remember where I live."  
  
"You don't remember where you live?" The purple-masked turtle repeated.  
  
"I don't remember a lot of things," Sasha said with a sigh. She looked up at the blue-masked turtle. He seemed friendly enough. They all seemed friendly enough. After all, they had rescued her from her attackers, and they had bandaged her head. Below zero, the blue one had said. Below zero outside, and she didn't have anywhere to go. If she went back to the streets, she would probably get sicker, or maybe even die of hypothermia. But if she stayed here, like the turtles wanted her too, then she would be warm and be safe. Something from within her told her to trust these turtles. She looked around the room at each of the turtles, ending with the blue one. "My name's Sasha," she said slowly. "If your offer for me to stay here until I'm well is still open, I would like to accept it."  
  
The blue turtle nodded. "My name is Leonardo. You are welcome to stay as long as you need to. These are my brothers: Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. You would meet our sensei, Master Splinter, but he is meditating right now."  
  
Sasha nodded, and when Donatello came forward a second time to take her back to the infirmary, she let him help her, for her head was starting to hurt more.  
  
Once she was back in bed, the four turtles gathered around her. Michelangelo had brought in some tea for her to drink and Donatello gave her some painkillers for her headache.  
  
"All right Sasha, I want to take this slow, but we do need some more information about you," Leonardo said, sitting down in a chair beside the bed. Donatello and Michelangelo pulled up chairs as well, but Raphael simply leaned back against the wall near the door.  
  
"I'm not sure if there's much I can tell you," Sasha said. "How long have I been asleep?"  
  
"Two days," Don answered.  
  
Sasha nodded and took a sip of her tea. "Then I guess that makes it four days since I woke up..."  
  
"Woke up where?" Leo asked  
  
"On a barge, in the harbor."  
  
The turtles blinked in surprise. "What happened after that?"  
  
Sasha shrugged and stared down hard into her teacup for a moment before answering. "I got off the barge when it docked. I had no clue where I was, how I had gotten there, where I belonged, or who I was. All I knew was that my name is Sasha. I was wearing the pants, boots, and shirt that you found me in, but my pants were tucked into the tops of my boots, and I was wearing a belt around my waist over my shirt. People gave me funny looks for what I was wearing, so I threw the belt away—it was just a real simple leather thing, no value to it at all—and I untucked my pants from my boots...not that that matters. People were really scared of my tail, though, so when I saw that trench coat hanging up in a food shop, I went in and took it. I know I shouldn't have stolen it, but I didn't want to get caught or attacked for having a tail. From the time I got off the barge to the time you found me, I walked the streets. I couldn't find a single place that I recognized..." she trailed off and took another sip of her tea. The turtles sat quietly, waiting for her to continue. "So that's my story. I don't have any memory of anything that happened before I woke up on that barge."  
  
"Do you have any idea why those men attacked you?" Leonardo asked.  
  
Sasha shook her head. "I don't know of any reason why they would want to. I don't remember doing anything to encourage such an attack, but then that doesn't mean much coming from a person with amnesia."  
  
She smiled a small smile, and the turtles all silently noted how pretty she looked when she did.  
  
"This might seem off topic a little," Don said after a moment. "But do you remember anything about your necklace? Like who gave it to you or anything?"  
  
Sasha grasped the cylinder in her hand. "My Token? I don't know who gave it to me. But it seems to me that I've had it for a very long time."  
  
"Do you know what the symbols mean?"  
  
"No. I don't remember."  
  
Donatello nodded and leaned back in his chair, thinking.  
  
"So let me get this straight. You just woke up on a barge out in the middle of the Long Island sound, and you don't remember anything?" Raphael asked incredulously.  
  
"Nothing." Sasha twirled the Token around between her fingers, rubbing the jeweled symbols. They held a sort of comfort and sense of strength that she didn't quite understand.  
  
"So, uh, how do we get Sasha's memory back?" Michelangelo asked. "I mean, if she lost her memory, she should be able to find it again."  
  
Donatello smiled at his younger brother. "It's not quite that simple, Mikey. Her memory loss could be caused by a lot of things. If it's brain trauma, like she got hit in the head, then she might never get it back. But if she's suppressing it because of trauma, then it's possible she could work it out of her mind." He shrugged. "We'll just have to wait and see."  
  
Mike frowned. He didn't like the idea that this girl might never remember who she was. "But what if she has a family? How will she be able to find them?"  
  
"We can ask April to check any police reports for missing teenagers," Leo replied.  
  
"Don't bother. I don't have a family."  
  
Leo looked up at Sasha sharply. She was staring off into space and playing absent-mindedly with her Token. "How do you know?" he asked.  
  
Sasha blinked and focused her eyes on Leo. They were a piercing blue color. "I just remembered. I don't have a family."  
  
"You mean you're an orphan?"  
  
She shrugged and yawned. "I don't know. I just know I don't have a family." She yawned again. "I also know I'm dead tired. Do you guys mind if I sleep?"  
  
"Go ahead," Don said. "It's getting late, and we should be getting to bed anyway." He stood up, and the other turtles followed suit.  
  
"If you need anything, just holler," Mike added.  
  
"Okay." The turtles left the room, and Sasha slid down beneath her covers. She closed her eyes, and was asleep in moments. 


	4. IV

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of its affiliates. I do, however, own Sasha, so you can't have her.  
  
IV  
  
It was four in the morning, and Donatello still hadn't fallen asleep. It seemed almost useless for him to fall asleep now, since Leonardo would just wake him up again in two hours for practice. After thinking for a few moments, he decided to get up and go check on Sasha. After all, the girl had a concussion and needed to be looked after till that cleared up.  
  
With a frustrated sigh, Donatello got up and went to the infirmary. Sasha was asleep, curled up in a ball under the covers. He could see her tail moving a little beside her. She looked like she was fairing all right, but he did not want to touch her to take her pulse because he did not want to wake her up.  
  
He sighed and sat down in a chair at the foot of her bed. This wasn't like him. He normally slept pretty well, or at least well enough to get by. Raphael was supposed to be the night owl, but tonight even he was sleeping soundly in his room.  
  
Donatello stretched out his legs, making his feet disappear under the bed. While under there, they hit something. Curious, Donatello reached under and found the boots Sasha had been wearing. He hadn't had a chance to examine them before now. They were interesting boots, to say the least. They were brown and leather, with laces, but they looked hand-made. The stitches were large and a little un-even, but also much stronger than any shoe stitching Donatello had ever come into contact with. The soles were equally as strange. Instead of large, patterned treads like the ones on the bottom of sneakers, these soles had what looked like sand paper for traction. There was no sign of wear on the outside of the boots—there were no cracks in the leather and no smooth spots on the tread. But by feeling them, and having taken them off Sasha's feet, Donatello knew that the boots were well broken in. But the strangest thing of all about the boots was that there was no label or tag to tell who made them. For all he knew, Sasha could have made them herself.  
  
He looked back up at Sasha. Her silver hair shone in the dim light from the medical monitors. Silver hair. That was different. It was obviously natural since there were no different-colored roots growing. But what kind of human had silver hair?  
  
"What kind of human has a tail, for that matter?" he whispered to himself. Perhaps she wasn't a human, he thought silently. Maybe she was something else. A mutant maybe? If she was a mutant, then she hadn't been mutated by the same mutagen that had mutated the turtles. Were there others out there like her? And if they were, were they all as pretty as she was?  
  
Donatello sighed and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. He awoke to someone shaking him.  
  
"Hey, Donny," Leo was whispering into his ear. "Wake up, it's time to practice."  
  
"Oh, okay," Donatello murmured as he opened his eyes and stood up. Sasha was still asleep in bed. He looked at her for a moment and wondered again where she had gotten her boots. He then turned and followed his older brother to the dojo.  
  
+~+~+~~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+  
  
Sasha woke up shortly after Donatello left her room. She sat up, happy to find that she no longer felt nauseous and the pain in her head had mostly disappeared. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten in a few days, and that she needed to eat soon.  
  
She got up and found her boots sitting on the floor at the foot of her bed next to a chair. She pulled them onto her feet, smiling at the familiar feel of them around her feet. She tucked her pant legs into the top automatically. This seemed to be a normal routine to her body, so she didn't fight it.  
  
With her feet covered, Sasha headed out to the TV room, hoping to find someone up and around. The room was empty and the TV shut off. Sasha frowned slightly and set off to look in the other rooms of the lair. She finally found the turtles in a large room on the other side of the kitchen. There were mats on the floor of the room, and a large punching bag was hanging from the ceiling on the opposite side of the room. The turtles were in the center of the room, sparring with each other. They were laughing and talking as they practiced their kicks and punches.  
  
"I see you are awake," a kind voice said to Sasha's left. "I hope it was not my sons' talking that woke you."  
  
Sasha turned and saw a man-sized rat in a tattered purple robe sitting on a cushion on the floor. He had a kind face, and once again Sasha was not frightened. She could tell he was not a threat to her, just as she had known that the turtles were not as well.  
  
"Good morning," she said, walking over to the rat. "I'm Sasha." She held out her hand.  
  
The rat smiled and took it. "I am Splinter." He let go of her hand and did a slight bow from his sitting position. Sasha imitated the bow.  
  
"Come, sit. My sons still have a while before practice ends."  
  
Sasha nodded and squatted down beside Splinter. She did not know how he could sit on the ground with his tail. She found it rather uncomfortable. Instead, she hand found it most natural to squat down, balancing on the balls of her feet, with her knees splayed and her hands on the ground between her feet. This gave her tail the freedom to move and swish as it wished, and it also left her in a position from which she could leap from in a moment's notice, should danger ever arise. Splinter eyed her strange way of sitting, but said nothing.  
  
Sasha watched as the turtles sparred. They each had their own weapons, but they also used their hands and feet, as well as their surroundings.  
  
"Why are they practicing fighting?" She asked Splinter after a while. "Who would want to harm them?"  
  
Splinter sighed an almost inaudible sigh. "We are different. Humans fear that which is different. And what they fear, they oftentimes hate."  
  
"Humans are stupid," Sasha replied, a slight sneer creeping on her face.  
  
"Perhaps," Splinter replied. "But those are harsh words coming from such a young and inexperienced person."  
  
The hidden meaning behind that of course, Sasha knew, was "You probably aren't any smarter." She didn't reply.  
  
"Ninjitsu, like any other martial arts," Splinter went on after a moment. "Is also meant to teach discipline, focus, and to keep your body healthy. But you, of course, know that, being a warrior yourself."  
  
"What makes you say that?" Sasha asked, pulling her eyes away from watching the turtles to look at Splinter. "What makes you think that I'm a warrior?"  
  
"I can see it in your eyes. They have the focused look of a warrior who fights for a higher purpose. But I have never seen the intensity that you have."  
  
"I don't think I'm a warrior," Sasha said, turning her eyes back to the four practicing. "I couldn't fight off those men when they attacked me."  
  
"You also cannot recall where you live or what happened much before my sons met you. Perhaps your mind has forgotten that you are a warrior."  
  
Sasha shook her head as she watched Michelangelo break free of Raphael who had grabbed him from behind. "I think you're just readying too much into my eyes," she said. "I think the focus you see is just my focus to remember who I am enough to get home." 


	5. V

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of its affiliates. I do, however, own Sasha, so you can't have her.  
  
V  
  
When the turtles were done practicing, they led Sasha into the kitchen to get some breakfast.  
  
"Want some breakfast pizza?" Michelangelo asked her, offering up a slice of pizza with cornflakes on it.  
  
Sasha raised an eyebrow and turned her head slightly away from the food. "No thanks. Do you have anything else?"  
  
"Well, you could have sushi, like Master Splinter," Donatello said. "But I don't suggest it if you're not big on raw fish. I'll make you a bowl of oatmeal, if you want."  
  
Sasha shrugged. "Whatever. I don't think I've ever had oatmeal before."  
  
"Oh! Let me make it Donny!" Michelangelo practically knocked over his chair in his enthusiasm. "I'll make the oat meal for her!"  
  
"Mikey, are you okay?" Leo asked.  
  
"I'm fine dude. I just wanna make Sasha's oatmeal, that's all."  
  
A few minutes later, Sasha was eating a bowl of lumpy oatmeal with milk and brown sugar on it. It felt wonderful to get something into her stomach. She watched the turtles as they ate their breakfast. They laughed and joked, all happy and pleased over one thing or another. Of course they were pleased with something—they were brothers, they loved each other and looked out of one another. That was enough to even make Sasha happy.  
  
Once breakfast was taken care of, Leonardo approached Sasha. "Would you like to take a shower and maybe change into some clean clothes?"  
  
Sasha grinned, stunning Leo and his brothers once again with how pretty she was. "That'd be great."  
  
"Good," Leo said.  
  
"And while you're in the shower, do you think I could look at your Token?" Don asked. "Maybe I can figure out what the symbols mean, and if I figure that out, maybe it will jog your memory."  
  
The grin disappeared from Sasha's face. "No. I don't like other people touching it. And I don't want to take it off. But after my shower, if you want, you can have a closer look at it."  
  
"Sure," Donatello said, a little confused. "I guess that will work."  
  
Once Sasha was in the shower, Leonardo called a meeting in the training dojo. "We need to talk about Sasha," he stated.  
  
"What about her?" Mikey asked. He sat down on the floor with his legs spread out in front of him.  
  
"Well, two things mainly. First and most important, the Foot's after her, and we don't know why. And where the Foot is, the Shredder is in the middle of it."  
  
"I still think it has something to do with her necklace," Donatello said. "When we watched from the roof, it looked like one of them was trying to grab it from her."  
  
"So the Shredder wants her necklace. But why?" Leonardo looked around to his brothers to see if they had any ideas. They all just shrugged. "Alright. So I guess we've reached a dead end there. The second thing is her memory loss. I think we should help her try to get it back. Maybe once she gets her memory back, she'll know why the Foot is after her."  
  
"So you're saying we're gonna let her stay here?" Raph asked.  
  
"We kind of have to, even just out of ethical reasons. She doesn't have a home, and she can't go to a shelter because of her tail, and she can't sleep outside because of the weather," Donatello replied.  
  
"Yeah, I don't think she'd like it if her tail turned into a popsicle," Mikey said with a grin.  
  
"Then it's settled," Leo said, nodding. "She stays here until we're sure she's safe from both Shredder and the weather."  
  
The others nodded in agreement, and the meeting ended.  
  
Mikey grinned to himself as he headed back to his own room to catch up on his comic-book reading. She was staying! He hoped that he and his brothers would be able to help her remember who she was and where her home was. However, something inside him made him hope that she didn't have a home. He hoped that she would remember she didn't have anywhere to go so that she would be able to stay with them forever.  
  
"What am I thinking?" he whispered to himself. "It'd be really sad if she doesn't have a home." But Mikey still couldn't escape the rushing in his ears that came every time he thought of sharing the lair with her. 


	6. VI

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of its affiliates. I do, however, own Sasha, so you can't have her.  
  
VI  
  
The clothes the turtles had given Sasha had once belonged to their friend April O'Neil. The pants didn't have a hole in them for her tail. Sasha frowned as she examined the seam. She wished she had a knife or something so that she could make neat hole for her tail to go through, but there was nothing sharp in the bathroom. Sighing, she took hold of the pants on either side of the seam and gave a short, firm yank. The seam on the sweatpants ripped apart easily. She pulled the pants on and her tail snaked through the hole in the back with no problem. She grinned, proud that she was able to solve her own problems without calling out for help.  
  
She then yanked the tank top she had been given over her head and looked at her self in the mirror. Her silver hair hung tangled around her face. At least it was clean. She wondered vaguely where she would find a hairbrush in an apartment housed by four hairless turtles. She settled on just running her fingers through her hair and hoping that it would detangle as it dried.  
  
She opened the bathroom door to find Michelangelo sitting outside, waiting for her. "Hey," he said as she stepped out. "Everyone else is waiting for you in Don's lab."  
  
"Alright," she said, pulling at a very stubborn tangle in her hair. "Show the way."  
  
Donatello's lab was through a door in the infirmary. There were pieces of metal and machines everywhere, as well as tables full of glass beakers and bottles of chemicals. Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael were all surrounding desk with a computer on it.  
  
"Can I see your necklace?" Donatello asked.  
  
Sasha frowned. "You see with your eyes, not your hands."  
  
Donatello returned the frown. "I'm not going to steal it, I just want a closer look."  
  
"Alright then." Sasha walked over and knelt down in front of Donatello. "You can't touch it, but here..." She reached up, grabbed hold of her Token and carefully pulled the necklace off over her head. Donatello watched dumb- founded.  
  
"How did you do that?" he cried. "That chain was nowhere near long enough to fit over your head."  
  
Sasha shrugged. "I just took it off. Here." She held out her hand, the Token in her palm. It was the first time Sasha had ever actually seen it besides in a mirror, but it seemed as if she had seen it many times before. The Token was heavier in her hand that it was around her neck, like it was making itself weigh more because it wasn't where it belonged.  
  
Donatello moved his face very closely to it and asked her to rotate the Token slowly. She did so. The symbols sparkled brightly, like they were speaking volumes to her—volumes that she didn't understand a word of. "And you have no idea what these symbols mean?" Donatello asked.  
  
Sasha shook her head.  
  
"They look sort of like Hebrew characters," Donatello said. "But different in some way. Do you remember if you speak Hebrew?"  
  
Sasha shrugged. "I don't know."  
  
Donatello pursed his lips together in thought. "They don't look like normal Hebrew letters though. They have too many loops and curves in them...do you mind if I take a few pictures of this?" he asked. "I can post them on the Internet and see if anyone can give me any info about them."  
  
"Go ahead, and do what you want," Sasha said. "You just can't take my Token."  
  
"He gets it already," Raph snapped. "'Don't touch my Token, don't touch my Token'. God, you sound like a broken record."  
  
Sasha's eyes suddenly flashed and she glared up at Raph. "You'd better watch it," she told him, her voice cold and full of authority. "You shouldn't talk to me that way."  
  
Raph raised an eyebrow and snorted in contempt, but Leo stopped him before he could say anything else. "Cool it, Raph," Leo ordered. "She has the right to say whether people can touch her necklace or not."  
  
Raph glared at his older brother for a few moments, then stomped out of the room.  
  
"What's his problem?" Sasha asked as she watched him leave.  
  
"He has issues," Donatello murmured, so quietly that Sasha was sure that no one was supposed to hear.  
  
"Raph doesn't like it when people repeat directions over and over again. And he doesn't like to be told what to do," Leo explained.  
  
"He has issues," Donatello repeated, getting up and grabbing a camera off the shelf. 


	7. VII

You like me! You really like me! Or at least you like my story. Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing (all two of you!)  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of their Affiliates. I do however own Sasha, so you can't have her.  
  
VII  
  
It felt good for Sasha to finally get her Token back around her neck. She squatted on a chair beside Donatello and watched him as he uploaded the pictures on to the computer, and then posted them on a few different websites with a message that read, "My friend owns this necklace, and she is curious as to what the symbols mean. Anyone have any ideas?"  
  
"Do you think anyone will reply?" Sasha asked, staring at the screen.  
  
Donatello shrugged. "I'm not sure. Asking on the Internet can be like shooting a gun in the dark. You might hit your target, or you could land way off the mark."  
  
"Oh." Sasha frowned at the screen and prayed silently that someone would know something. "How long will it take for a reply to be sent?" she asked.  
  
"Anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. It all depends on luck."  
  
"Like shooting in the dark," Sasha repeated. Something about that sentence stuck in her head. "Like shooting in the dark...or fighting in the dark..."  
  
Donatello looked over to her. Her eyes were unfocused, and she was holding her Token in her hand. "Sasha?"  
  
"Like..." She bit her lip and clamped her eyes shut. "Like...Oh! Damnation! I had it! I had it!" Her eyes flew open and Donatello saw tears in them, threatening to escape. "I had something, it was there, I almost had it in my mind—Drat it. I lost it. It's gone."  
  
She looked forlornly at Don, and he felt a deep sense of pity and sadness welling up inside him. He had never thought about it before, but having amnesia would probably be very frustrating. "Don't worry Sasha, I'm sure you'll regain your memory soon."  
  
She didn't reply. Her eyes shifted to the computer screen.  
  
"Listen, Sasha, where did you get your boots? I was looking at them, and I didn't see any labels on them."  
  
"I don't know," Sasha said. "I guess I've had them for a while because they feel so natural for me to wear. But I don't know where I got them. For all I know, I could have been born with them on."  
  
Before Donatello could say anything more, she got up off the chair and left the room. Donatello watched her walk. She obviously relied on her tail for balance, but there was something else about the way she walked. The way she carried her shoulders especially. It was as if she was used to wearing a backpack or something.  
  
He shrugged and turned back to his computer. He wanted to do some research on amnesia.  
  
Sasha went into the TV room and sat down on the back of it, allowing her tail to hang down the back. Michelangelo was watching a morning newscast. The woman on it was talking about a museum robbery that had occurred the night before.  
  
"...There are still no suspects in the case involving the stolen scrolls," the reporter told the camera. "However, we have been told that all of the security guards here at the museum were found unconscious by the police upon arrival. There are no reports yet on the condition the guards are in. We will remain here on the scene and we will relay updates to you as they develop. This is April O'Neil, channel six news. Back to you Justin."  
  
"Is that your friend whose clothes I am borrowing?" Sasha asked Michelangelo.  
  
"Yeah, April. You'll probably get to meet her tonight—she's coming down to visit."  
  
"Ah. What was stolen from the museum?"  
  
"Hmm? Oh, some sort of ancient scrolls. They weren't real specific." Mikey shrugged. "I was just watching to see April."  
  
"Why?" Sasha asked.  
  
"What do you mean why? She's my friend. It's like my job to watch her."  
  
Sasha raised an eyebrow. "There must be some job that would use your time more wisely."  
  
"Nah," Mikey said with a grin. "About the only other thing I have to do is practice. And that gets boring."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Do you like comic books? I have a bunch of comic books, if you want something to do."  
  
"Sure," Sasha said, looking up and smiling a little. "Maybe something in them will jog my memory."  
  
"Cool."  
  
Michelangelo led Sasha to his bedroom where they spent much of the rest of the day reading comic books and talking.  
  
The Comic books did not remind Sasha of anything. In fact, they seemed more foreign to her than the buildings on the streets above. "I don't get it," she said, putting down a magazine. "Why would a spider bite give someone super powers?"  
  
"It was a radio active spider. When it bit him, it made him radioactive, and the radioactive stuff made his genes mutate," Mikey explained. He was lounging on the floor, while Sasha was sitting on the bed.  
  
"That's what happened to you and your brothers and Splinter, right?"  
  
"Yeah. How did you know?"  
  
Sasha shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it's the only thing that seemed logical. You were mutated. Things like that only make sense when applied to people like you."  
  
Mikey tossed another comic book in her direction. "You're startin' to think too much, Dudette. This is total-relaxation time. No brainwork required. " 


	8. VIII

Disclaimer: I do not own the TMNT or any of their affiliates. But I do own Sasha, so you can't have her. :-P  
  
VIII  
  
That night, April O'Niel came to visit. She was thin, with medium-length red hair, and very pretty. Sasha watched from her perch on the back of the couch as the turtles all gathered around their friend and greeted her with hugs and smiles.  
  
"Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been down in a while. Work has been hectic, and the holiday shop--" April stopped short when she caught sight of the silver- haired girl sitting on the back of her friends' sofa. "Who's this, guys?" She asked, unable to pull her eyes away from the unfamiliar guest.  
  
"Oh, April, this is Sasha," Leonardo explained. "Sasha, this is our friend April."  
  
Sasha nodded and jumped lightly from the back of the couch. April gasped at the sight of her black tail.  
  
"It's okay April, she's not gonna hurt you," Mikey said.  
  
"Are you a mutant, too?" April asked Sasha.  
  
Sasha blinked. "I don't know," she said. "Don't ask me too many questions about myself, and we'll get along just fine."  
  
April blinked and shrugged. "I brought some pizza down for you guys. I can't stay long, though. This museum robbery is big news. And just so you guys know, I think the Foot was involved."  
  
"What makes you say that, April?" Leo asked as Mike and Raph went outside to retrieve the pizza boxes.  
  
"Well, what other group would be able to take out eight security guards so fast that they wouldn't be able to hit an alarm?"  
  
"Good point."  
  
The group went into the kitchen, Sasha trailing at the rear. She felt uneasy around April. For some reason, she didn't like April seeing her, as if a rule was being broken or something.  
  
"What was stolen April?" Donatello asked, pulling out a chair for the reporter. Sasha hopped up onto an empty spot on the kitchen counter behind April's chair and squatted down. Her tail swished behind her as if it was trying to find a comfortable position to be in.  
  
"It's really weird, because it's not something you would normally expect Shredder to be after—they stole ancient Hebrew scrolls."  
  
"Ancient Hebrew?" Donny asked. "As in, old Jewish manuscripts?" "Sort of," April said, trying to find the words. "From what the curator told me, the actual translation wasn't so much religious writing, but more myths and stories."  
  
"About what?"  
  
April shrugged. "Nobody really knows. Apparently there was another kind of writing on some of them, but it was mixed with the Hebrew letters, making it impossible to really understand."  
  
"What would Shredder want with Ancient Hebrew Scrolls that no one could read?" Leonardo asked.  
  
"That's what I was hoping you guys could answer," April said with a sigh. "Have you noticed if the Foot has been acting strange lately?"  
  
"Well, they did attack Sasha," Donatello answered. "But we don't know why, and neither does she."  
  
April turned and looked up at the girl squatting on the counter. Sasha's head was cocked to one side, and she was looking up at the ceiling as though there was something vaguely interesting on it. After a few minutes of April gazing up at her, she turned her gaze to her. April was surprised by the cool calculation in Sasha's eyes.  
  
"Do you have any idea why the Foot are after you?"  
  
Sasha blinked slowly. "No," she said. Her gaze returned to the ceiling. She didn't seem the least bit worried.  
  
"Are you sure? No idea at all? Are you maybe involved in some sort of religious group—are you Jewish? Or are your parents researchers for--"  
  
Sasha shook her head and looked back to April. Her eyes were no longer blue, but an orange color. "Listen, I don't do well with questions, so I'd appreciate it if you would just stop asking me them."  
  
"Com'n Sasha, calm down," Mikey said, almost pleading. "You don't have to be so defensive. She's just trying to help."  
  
"Well, she's not." Sasha took a deep breath. "Sorry, I'm just kind of stressed out."  
  
"Well, don't be," April smiled. "These guys won't let anything happen to you."  
  
After she had eaten two slices of pizza, April stood up. "Sorry guys, I gotta run, I told them I'd be back in time for the six o'clock news."  
  
"Do you have to go?" Mikey whined good-naturedly.  
  
"Only if you don't want me to lose my job. I'll call you guys tomorrow. Maybe once this robbery story is squared away, we can do something." She gave each of the turtles a hug and left.  
  
"So that's April O'Neil," Sasha said after April was gone.  
  
Mikey grinned. "Yeah. You wanna go read some more comics?"  
  
"Sure." 


	9. IX

IX  
  
That night, Raphael was the last person awake. He sat up in the dark living room watching a Clint Eastwood movie long past the time the others went to bed, long past midnight. He simply couldn't sleep. He rarely could. It wasn't something that worried him or his family in the slightest for it was just a routine with him: he would be that last to bed, the last one up, and still be just as grouchy as ever. He sighed as he remembered the time when he and his brothers were little, and Michelangelo had called him "Oscar the Grouch". Raph had hauled of and smacked Mikey for that. He didn't like being called a grouch. He didn't like to be called anything.  
  
The movie was just ending, and Raph was starting to think about going to bed when he heard a noise in the kitchen. He looked up. The lights in the kitchen were off, and it was darker than night in there. He stared into the black doorway and heard it again: Someone was opening and closing cupboards quietly, as if they didn't want to be heard. It wasn't one of his brothers or Master Splinter, he knew, for they would have announced their presence. And there was no way it could be that little brat with a tail who was sleeping in the infirmary—she didn't have the skill to walk silently past him; Raph would have noticed her.  
  
So, someone was in their kitchen, looking for something, and they were trying to be sneaky about it. Raph stood up slowly, drawing his one of his sai out of his belt, and began to slowly make his way towards the kitchen. He got to the doorway and peered in. It was too dark to see anything. Raph decided to give himself a little advantage. He reached quietly over to the light switch on the kitchen wall, and then with a loud shout he threw on the lights, bathing the kitchen in light.  
  
Sasha had been looking in the cabinets for something to make tea with. She had left the light off because she found she could see perfectly in the dark, and had not wanted to disturb Raphael. But when the lights switched on so suddenly, pain flooded into her eyes. Surprised, her instincts took over. She crouched down behind the table, and wrapped her tail around a chair leg, ready to throw it if the need arose.  
  
"What the hell?" Raph breathed when he saw Sasha duck down under the table. He slid the sai back into his belt. "What the hell are you doing up?"  
  
Sasha peered up over the table. Seeing Raph, she breathed a sigh of relief. "I had a dream," she said. "It bothered me."  
  
Raph rolled his eyes and groaned. "Geez kid. I'm sorry you had a nightmare, but you don't have to go around like someone's gonna kill you if they find you."  
  
"It wasn't a nightmare," Sasha replied, standing up and allowing her tail to relax. "It was a dream."  
  
"Well then, if it was just a dream, what about it bothers you so much?"  
  
"The fact that it didn't."  
  
"Didn't what?"  
  
"Didn't bother me."  
  
Raph groaned and rolled his eyes. "If we're just gonna talk in circles, then I have better things to do with my time than talk to you. Like sleep."  
  
"Than do them. I'm not stopping you." Sasha began opening the cupboards again, peering in at the contents.  
  
Raph didn't move.  
  
Sasha snorted. "So I guess talking to me is a last resort?"  
  
"Listen, I don't need to take any crap from you. You just sparked my interest," Raph said, pulling up a chair. This girl's self-confidence held a slight appeal for him. He wasn't used to someone so being sure of themselves. "So what was so scary about this dream?"  
  
"It wasn't scary. Or, at least, it didn't scare me. It should have though. That's what bothers me. Where do you guys keep the tea?"  
  
"It's in the drawer next to the stove. What was your dream about?"  
  
Sasha paused and placed both hands on the top of the counter. Her back was to Raphael, but her tail gave away that she was nervous, because it kept twitching from side to side. "It was about demons," she murmured.  
  
"Demons?"  
  
"Yeah. They were all around me, getting ready to attack, and I wasn't scared. I wasn't even worried. They were everywhere, threatening me, and laughing at me, and I didn't even care...Have you ever dreamed about demons?"  
  
Raphael didn't answer. She seemed to accept that, and went on making tea. They didn't speak for a while. Finally, unable to stand the silence any longer, Raph spoke. "Damn."  
  
Sasha turned to him, grinning. "So you get it now. Wouldn't that freak you out at least a little? If you had a dream that would scare the pants off any decent ninja, and you didn't even care?"  
  
Raph nodded, but didn't say anything. This girl was pretty messed up. Not scared by a dream that had plagued him for years? She had to be kidding.  
  
But the thing was, she wasn't kidding him. She was simply stating fact, "Objectifying the event" was what Donnie would say. This girl made him nervous. She was just so cool, so collected, even when she had no idea what was going to happen to her. She was more like Splinter than any of his brothers. It was like she was from another world.  
  
She set a cup of tea down in front of him. "You should get more sleep," she told him, sitting down across from him.  
  
"Speak for yourself," Raph sneered.  
  
"I don't think I usually sleep much. My body can't handle it. It's like I always have to be on alert."  
  
Raph thought for a moment before he spoke. "Have you thought that maybe you're so jumpy and on edge because someone's always smacking you around?"  
  
"Point to any physical evidence of abuse," Sasha said. "And when you do, I'll believe you. But I only have one scar on my entire body. It looks pretty old, too, 'cause I only just noticed it today." She pulled the left side of her tank top collar down to reveal a faint, yet definite scar that ran from the top of her shoulder almost down to her chest, following the line of her collar bone almost exactly. "It was made by a blade. But not like in surgery. Something else."  
  
Raph cocked and eye ridge. "So, lemme state so far what you've come up with about yourself. One, you don't have a family. Two, you're not scared by dreams about demons. Three, you have a scar that isn't from surgery. And four, you don't like people touching your Token. Great! With all that information, we can easily assume who you are and where you're from—you are a demon yourself and you're from Hell." He let out a sarcastic laugh.  
  
Sasha raised an eyebrow at the red-masked turtle. "You're a jerk, you know that? An immensely huge jerk." She finished off her cup of tea. "I should go back to bed."  
  
"Probably," Raph agreed.  
  
She didn't move. She just sat there, staring down at her cup. "It's kind of cold in the infirmary," she murmured. "I don't think the kerosene heater Donatello put in there is working. I think it's out of fuel."  
  
"Dammit, kid. Why are you complaining to me? You're tough. Sleeping in the cold won't kill you."  
  
She looked up at him. "No, it won't." She stood up and put the cup into the sink. "G'night."  
  
Raph watched as she left the kitchen, and then drank his own tea, grimacing at how strong it was. He knew why Sasha had mentioned the cold. She wasn't worried about freezing to death. What she was worried about was her dream. He almost felt sorry for her. Almost. Something inside him was telling Raph that if worse came to worse, the girl would find ways to survive. It was the people that had no way to survive without help that Raph really pitied.  
  
Sasha didn't fall back asleep when she got back to the infirmary. Instead, she sat on her bed with her blanket curled around her, and stared into the darkness of the room. A few minutes later, she heard Raph head to bed, and then the lair was completely silent.  
  
It was so still that when the person entered the room, Sasha could him sense immediately and very clearly. She couldn't see him, but he was in there with her. She held her breath and waited for the other person to make a move. It didn't take long.  
  
"Hello Sasha."  
  
The voice was calm and sure of itself.  
  
"Who's there?" Sasha demanded, peering into the darkness. Her tail lashed wildly around behind her, ready for anything.  
  
She was still the only person in the room, or so it looked. Sasha, though, knew better than that. Her whole body tensed up. "Who's there?" she demanded again.  
  
"Who, me?" the voice came from her left.  
  
Sasha turned to look, and there standing next to the door to Donatello's laboratory was a young man. Like Sasha, he had silver hair and a black tail. But his eyes were different. They were gray and pupil-less. He seemed to be staring right through her. Around his neck was a Token, only it looked to be made out of iron instead of silver.  
  
"Who are you?" Sasha asked, narrowing her eyes at him.  
  
"What? You've forgotten me?" He sounded truly offended. "How could you have forgotten me?"  
  
"Do I know you?"  
  
The young man grinned. "Not anymore I guess. Oh, well, good things never last." He eyed her neck. "Got your Token I see. That's my girl. I knew you'd come around eventually." He sneered, an expression that suggested pure evil.  
  
"What does that mean, I've come around? Who are you?" Sasha asked. But before her questions were complete, the man disappeared completely. Sasha could no longer sense him anywhere in the room, or anywhere in the lair.  
  
She pulled her pillow up to her and held it in her hands to keep them from shaking. That person. She knew him. She had seen him before. Yes, she had seen him before, but where? She could sense it—she almost had a grip on the memory. Yes, she knew who he was. He was...He was...but before she could remember anything besides that she knew him, the memory slipped back under the surface.  
  
"ARG!" she screamed in frustration and slammed the pillow hard against the bed. She felt some of the stitches give way under the force of the blow. "ARG!" She slammed the pillow again, and then began punching it with every word. "WHY—CAN'T—I—RE-MEM-BER—A—GOD—FOR—SAKEN—THING?!?" With one last exertion of force, she raised the pillow above her head. But instead of slamming it against the bed, she lowered it, then wrapped her arms around it and began to cry. The tears were cool against her hot face as they ran down her cheeks. She remembered that she had only cried twice in her life, but she couldn't remember when those times were, or why they had made her cry.  
  
A hand on her back startled her, but when she looked up, she didn't find the strange man there. Instead, it was Michelangelo's eyes staring back into her own.  
  
"I heard you shouting," he explained. "I came to see if you're all right."  
  
Sasha sniffed loudly and tried to brush away her tears. "I'm fine."  
  
"No you're not," Michelangelo said. "But okay." He sat down on the edge of her bed. "Wow, you've got the most comfortable bed in the whole lair," he breathed. "No wonder Raph likes to get hurt so much."  
  
Sasha smiled at the joke through her tears. "Michelangelo, do you believe in demons?"  
  
"Demons?" He frowned. "I don't know. What do you call a demon?"  
  
"I don't know. I just had a dream about them, that's all." She decided not to mention the strange man to him, since that would only cause more problems.  
  
"Is that why you're awake? You're nervous that the dream will come back?"  
  
Sasha's jaw nearly hit the floor. "How did you know that?"  
  
He grinned. "Just call me Therapist Mike. Master Splinter says I have a gift for understanding people. If you want, I can stay here until you fall asleep. When I was little and had bad dreams, Master Splinter would sit up with me till I went back to sleep. That always kept the dreams from coming back. Leo did it sometimes, too. Trust me, it works."  
  
Sasha nodded. "All right. I'll try to go back to sleep if you promise to stay with me till I'm snoring."  
  
Michelangelo nodded. "Deal." 


	10. X

X  
  
When Leonardo went to wake Michelangelo the next morning, he found his youngest brother's bed empty. Surprised, Leonardo went to check the kitchen, thinking that maybe Michelangelo had gotten up early and was reading the paper or something. The kitchen was empty as well. Leonardo's wondering was just beginning to turn to worry when Donatello appeared in the kitchen doorway.  
  
"Hey Leo, come see this. But be real quiet."  
  
Leo followed Donnie through the lair and into the infirmary, where he was met with a sight he was not expecting. Sasha was sleeping peacefully in her bed. She was curled in a ball. At the foot of her bed, curled around her feet, was Michelangelo, also asleep. The innocence of the scene and the calmness of the two people creating it made Leo regret having to awaken Mikey. But practice was more important than a picturesque moment, and so he reached over and gently shook Michelangelo awake.  
  
"Hey, practice time."  
  
Michelangelo blinked his eyes a few times, and then sat up. His movement awoke Sasha who sat up as well, brushing her silver hair out of her face.  
  
"What's going on?" she asked.  
  
"Nothing," Donnie said, helping Michelangelo stand up. "We need to go to morning practice. You can go back to sleep if you want."  
  
Sasha shook her head. "I'll get up. I liked watching you guys yesterday."  
  
They headed to the dojo, where Master Splinter was already sitting. His eyes were closed, and the expression on his face told them all, even Sasha, that he was meditating. Raphael came in right after the group. While the turtles went farther into the room to practice, Sasha squatted down beside Splinter.  
  
"You are up early this morning," Splinter remarked a few moments later as he opened his eyes.  
  
Sasha shrugged and said nothing.  
  
"You were up late last night as well," he continued.  
  
"How did you know?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of the turtles.  
  
"Do you think Michelangelo is the only one with ears good enough to hear you scream at the top of your lungs?"  
  
"He's the only one who came to o calm me down."  
  
"He's also the only one with such an extensive gift of compassion."  
  
She didn't respond.  
  
"Who were you talking to before your out burst last night?"  
  
Sasha shifted her position to a kneeling one before she spoke. "I don't know," she said. "He is very familiar to me. I know I have seen him before. A friend, maybe? Or a..." she trailed off, not quite sure of the word she was looking for.  
  
"An enemy?" Splinter offered.  
  
Sasha jerked as if the word physically hit her. "Yes, that's it," she breathed. "He's an enemy. A really old enemy. I still can't remember why he's an enemy, though."  
  
"And you say you are not a warrior," Splinter commented. There was no sarcasm in his voice, just a vague amount of amusement. "You must be a warrior of some sort in order to have an enemy that could come into this house undetected."  
  
Sasha took a deep breath. "I sensed him before I saw him. Like he was giving off a signal or something. He was in the room before I saw him, too. Which is weird, because I can see in the dark."  
  
"You can?" Splinter sounded mildly surprised at this. "What you are telling me is beginning to make me wonder if you might be more than simply a normal, lost girl who's forgotten her past."  
  
"I'm a little more than normal, Splinter. I have a tail, don't forget. I don't know too many girls my age who have tails."  
  
"How old are you, Sasha?"  
  
"I don't know. Why?"  
  
"How old would you guess?"  
  
"Judging by my physical features and the shape of my face," Sasha said after a moment's thought. "I'd say somewhere around sixteen. Maybe eighteen, but probably closer to sixteen."  
  
Splinter nodded, but did not speak. Sasha watched her reptilian friends practice, relieved that the conversation had ended. She liked Splinter, but talking to him bothered her. It stirred things up in her head, a sensation she did not enjoy.  
  
But over and over again, her mind returned to the comment Splinter had made the day before about the warrior-like focus in her eyes. What if she was really a warrior? What if she could fight? But then, if she was a warrior, then why hadn't she been able to defend herself against those Foot soldiers? There was no possible way for her to be a warrior...but then, there was no possible way that she could have a tail. Or that she could wake up on a barge in the middle of the Long Island Sound with no memory. Or that a young man could appear out of thin air, and then disappear the same way. Even so, all of those things had happened, and if they could happen, then why couldn't she be a warrior?  
  
Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael were all attacking Leonardo, making the eldest turtle battle offenses from three different sides. His katana blades sliced through the air, ringing out sharply as they came in contact with Raphael's sais and Michelangelo's nun chucks. Donatello, being that master of a weapon that the swords could easily cut, had started attacking Leonardo with a series of kicks and punches. Unfortunately for his three younger siblings, Leonardo was easily deflecting everything they threw at him.  
  
"Com'n guys," he teased. "Stop goofing around and hit me already. I mean, if this is all you guys can through at me, then I need a new challenge."  
  
Sasha raised an eyebrow and looked over to Splinter. He turned his head and returned her gaze. His expression gave her all the permission and approval she needed.  
  
"Time out!" she called, standing up.  
  
The four turtles froze in mid-battle and turned their heads towards Sasha. "What is it?" Raph growled.  
  
Sasha took a deep breath and then said, "Leonardo, you just said you want a new challenge, right?"  
  
The blue-masked turtle nodded slowly. "Yes..."  
  
She bowed slowly to him, maintaining eye contact the entire time. "Then, Leonardo, I challenge you to a duel." 


	11. XI

XI  
  
All the turtles looked at the girl, shocked. "What did you just say?" Leonardo asked, dumb-founded.  
  
"I said: Leonardo, I challenge you to a duel." Sasha repeated the bow as well.  
  
Leonardo blinked and then looked over to his sensei, asking him with his facial expression what he should do.  
  
"She has presented you with a challenge, Leonardo. It would be dishonorable for you to refuse," Splinter said in a lecturing tone.  
  
"But she...but I...I would...What if I hurt her, Master Splinter?" Leonardo stuttered.  
  
"Then so be it. If you hurt her, then she will only have herself to blame. However, do not use your real katanas. Use the wooden practice katanas in the closet in my room."  
  
Leonardo blinked a few times and then bowed to his sensei. "Yes Master Splinter." He then turned to Sasha and bowed again. "Sasha, I accept your challenge." He then hurried out of the room and soon returned carrying two wooden swords that he used to replace his metal ones.  
  
Sasha walked to one end of the dojo and Leonardo walked to the other. They then turned and bowed to each other.  
  
"Ai!" Splinter barked, and the duel began.  
  
Leonardo wasted no time. As soon as the signal was given, he sprinted across the dojo at Sasha, getting ready to attack. Sasha stood like a deer caught in the headlights, watching as the large turtle came bearing down on her. What was she doing? He was bigger than her, stronger than her, and he actually remembered how to fight.  
  
When he was only ten feet away from her though, things began to change. Out of seemingly instinct, Sasha ducked and rolled out of the way, dodging a punch in the nick of time.  
  
From the sidelines, Raph gave a low whistle. "She's fast..."  
  
Sasha sprung up from her roll. Leonardo had allowed the momentum from his punch to carry him around, and he was now facing her, sizing her up. He had not expected her to be able to move with such speed, nor had he expected her to be able to perform tumbling dodges. She stood in a defensive position, staring at him, waiting for his next move. He could see her nervousness and the fear in her eyes. She knew that this was an uneven match, and she was expecting him to triumph quickly. Leonardo had nothing to worry about. He even felt a little sorry for her simply because the match was so one sided. He took a deep breath and got into a defensive position. The least he could do was give the girl a chance by letting her attack him.  
  
Sasha raised an eyebrow as Leo went into defensive mode instead of offense. Of course, he knew that this was an unfair fight, and wanted to let her try to get at least one hit in. But she knew something else about him as well: he didn't want to hurt her. He had stated his worry about hurting her to Splinter. But what Leo didn't know was that Sasha's conscience held no inhibition to keep her from harming her opponent. She actually found herself on the verge of apathy when it came to him being harmed.  
  
Accepting Leo's invitation to attack, Sasha bolted forward with a speed that surprised even her. When she reached Leo, she jumped up to send a kick to his head. But he moved almost as fast as she did and caught her foot before it connected. He threw her to the mat-covered floor.  
  
Sasha hit the ground with a painful thump. She quickly rolled away from Leonardo and then sprang to her feet again, finding herself backed into a corner with no way out. Suddenly, a realization surfaced in her consciousness: she could jump higher than any human—ten feet high or more. She glanced up at the ceiling of the room, and saw that it was covered in a series of wide, thick pipes that could easily hold her weight. She looked back to Leo in time to see him pulling out his Katanas. She grinned and flicked her eyebrows at him.  
  
Leo narrowed his eyes. She was planning something. He made a move to begin to charge at her, but as soon as his body shifted, Sasha crouched low and then made a vaulting leap toward the ceiling. For a moment, Leonardo could not fathom what she was hoping to accomplish, but when he saw her easily jump high enough to grab onto the pipes, and then pull herself up into the shadows near the ceiling and out of view, he drew in a deep breath. Her jumping skill was amazing. He didn't know of anyone who could jump that high. He peered up into the maze of pipes over his head. The light from the hanging lights did not reach far into the pipes, and Leo could see no sign of Sasha.  
  
"Dude, where'd she go?" Michelangelo asked, scanning the pipes above his head as well.  
  
Donatello exchanged a quick glance with Raphael. "Well, I'm pretty sure she's staying put. We'd hear her feet on the pipes if she wasn't."  
  
Leonardo was staring intently up at the ceiling. Where could she have gone?  
  
He was facing his brothers, looking up at the pipes above their heads. More silently than a breath of wind, Sasha lowered herself down from the pipes behind him, hanging upside down by her tail. The three brothers kept straight faces, even though it was difficult.  
  
Sasha grinned at them and put a finger to her lips. She then tapped lightly on the top of Leo's head. "Knock, knock."  
  
Leo spun around to see Sasha let go of the pipe with her tail and then fall to the floor, landing on her hands. She kicked him deftly in the chest with both feet, sending the eldest turtle flying back into Donatello. It all happened in the blink of an eye. She stood there on her hands for a time, watching as the two turtles got up, commenting on how strong she was. She looked over to Splinter, a look of both shock and amusement on her face. "Maybe there's something to your warrior theory after all," she said with a laugh.  
  
But Splinter was beginning to see much more in Sasha than just a girl who was trained to be a warrior. He was starting to see a person whose main reason of existence was to fight. The way she executed her movements was exact, with a certain amount of indifference and cold calculation. And the fact that she was doing so well and enjoying the duel this much without her full memory made him almost shudder. How would she behave once she had her entire memory back?  
  
Once Leonardo was on his feet and had regained his balance, Sasha flipped up to a standing position. She had a new confidence that everyone could see. She still had very little knowledge of fighting, but she was still keeping up with Leonardo.  
  
Leo suddenly rushed her, raising his swords, ready to attack with them. Sasha got ready to duck under the blades. Unfortunately, Leo was expecting this. As she was ducking, he squatted and gave her a light, yet effective, kick to the chest. Losing her balance, Sasha fell back and landed prone on the mat, the wind knocked out of her. Leo stood and hurried over, placing one foot on her abdomen and placing a sword blade to the side of her throat.  
  
"You are defeated," he informed her.  
  
She looked up at him with eyes that were as cold and gray as steel. "That's what you think."  
  
Sasha's tail suddenly wrapped around Leonardo's ankle, causing him to look down. With him distracted, Sasha grabbed the wooden sword's blade with both hands, and then rolled her body, using her tail to pull Leo's foot out from underneath him and wrenching the sword out of his hand.  
  
"That's not fair!" Raph cried. "He had her beat!"  
  
Splinter did not respond.  
  
Leo landed hard on his backside, but got up quickly. He turned his eyes to Sasha, and took in an incredible sight: Sasha was holding the wooden katana by the hilt, and she was looking down at it as if it were a magic wand.  
  
"I know this," she breathed, a smile spreading across her face. "I know how to use this."  
  
She looked up sharply at Leo. She raised the wooden sword out in a fencing stance and smirked at him. He wasn't the only master of a sword in the room. After a moment, Sasha's body swung into motion. She charged at Leonardo, slicing the weapon through the air at him, attacking so quickly and strongly that it was all he could do to defend himself. Then with one swift, fluid motion, Sasha disarmed Leo of the second katana and caught it in her free hand. At the same moment, Leonardo found his shell hit the wall behind him. Sasha executed two swift movements with the sword in her right hand: One pretending to slice through his neck, the other across his torso. "You may have defeated me," she said, her voice full of cold, hard indifference. "But I killed you."  
  
"That's enough!" Splinter ordered.  
  
Sasha pulled away from Leonardo, dropping the sword in her left hand. She bowed to him, and he returned the bow, a shocked look on his face. She then turned to face the others, her eyes changing quickly from steel gray to their usual piercing blue .  
  
"You are trained well in the art of fighting with Katana blades," Splinter commented, watching her as she examined the sword still in her right hand.  
  
She shook her head. "I don't know. Something doesn't feel right about them. May I see a real one?"  
  
Leonardo nodded and handed her one of his metal katanas. She moved away from the others and made a few practice slices through the air before turning back to them, shaking her head. "No, that doesn't feel right either. It's not balanced right. And the blade's not shaped right—it should be curved..." She examined the hilt. "And this part is usually longer, with the hand guards wider. But I remember fighting with a sword this size. I'm actually really good at it."  
  
"Who do you fight with the sword?" Donatello asked.  
  
"I don't remember."  
  
"Do you remember who trained you?"  
  
"No."  
  
Sasha sighed and returned the katana to Leonardo. "Good fight," she said. "You're the most challenge I've had in a long time."  
  
"Do you remember any previous challenges?" Leo asked.  
  
She shrugged. "I don't remember any of my other challenges, but I know they weren't that great."  
  
Everyone was silent for a moment. The turtles and Splinter now revered their new friend in a different light. She was a force to be reckoned with, even without all her memories.  
  
The silence made Michelangelo uneasy. "I don't know about all you guys," he said after a moment. "But I'm about ready for some breakfast. Who's with me?" 


	12. XII

GAAA! I forgot the disclaimer in the last several chapters, so here it is again: **I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of their affiliates. However, I do own Sasha, her Token, and the story line to this fic.  
**  
For all you people who have wanted answers—I hope this chapter at least gives you some more information. I'm not one to have everything just blurted out before the end though, I like to save that for the villains (you know, how the bad guys always reveal their evil plot to the good guys, thinking that the good guys will be defeated, but then they get defeated themselves) ANYWAY...on with the story...  
  
XII  
  
Donatello stared unblinking at his computer screen. Things were not adding up right, and he didn't understand why. He was researching the scrolls that had been stolen from the museum, most likely by the Foot. More recent news broadcasts on the investigation had revealed that the robbery followed the same pattern as many robberies in the past. Robberies that the turtles knew had been committed by the Foot. Which meant Donatello and his brothers were the only ones who could take care of the problem.  
  
But what would the Shredder want with these scrolls? From his research, most of the scrolls had been impossible to translate—mainly due to the fact that much of them had been written in a language that had long since died out, and that no one really spoke back when it was used. While the scrolls were of ancient Hebrew origin, they held very little religious value, and the few scrolls that could be translated basically told myths that did not apply to the basic beliefs of Judaism or Christianity, so what pertinent information could the Shredder get out of them? No one knew how to pronounce any of the words on the scrolls, so even if one of them contained a spell of some sort, it would be harmless.  
  
Donatello groaned and leaned back, rubbing his face with his hands. This robbery was so random, not like Shredder at all. What the heck could he be up to with these scrolls? Donatello had been racking his brain over this problem ever since April had told them about the robbery. And now, two days after Sasha's duel with Leonardo, Donatello was still just as far from an answer as ever.  
  
As he thought, Donatello's e-mail indicator popped up, announcing he had received yet another reply to the post about Sasha's necklace. He rolled his eyes, expecting it to just be another "Looks like Hebrew to me" or "WOAH! Where'd your friend get that? I want one!" reply, he almost deleted it before reading it. But the sender's address caught his attention.  
  
"Why would a professor from South Eastern University reply to my post?" Donatello mumbled to himself, opening the e-mail.  
  
Dear Sir,  
  
I was very surprised to see your post online a few days ago. Being a  
professor of Jewish studies, focusing mainly on the early Biblical  
time periods, I have run into this language before. It is not a  
language spoken any more, and no name was ever given to it that  
anyone has found, and so it has been called 'Seraphimian'. As legend  
has it, this was the language spoken and written by heavenly  
messengers. Most documents we have that contain it are not  
translated, and therefore we do not understand many of them. One of  
the few scrolls that we have managed to decode enough to get the  
general idea tells the tale of a Hercules-like figure, named  
Sashitaka. One of the epitaphs given to Sashitaka is the title  
"Releaser of Many Souls", and thus it is assumed that Sashitaka was  
a soldier of some sort. I bring this story up because both the name  
and the epitaph are found on your friend's necklace. There are other  
words, which I cannot translate for you. I hope that this will be  
some help to you. However, I feel compelled to ask you exactly how  
your friend came across a modern piece of jewelry with this language  
written on it? It is a dead language, and the general population  
could care less about it. If you have any further questions, feel  
free to e-mail me, and I will answer as best as to my ability.  
  
Sincerely  
Professor David C. Gotee  
PhD. Jewish Studies, South Eastern University  
  
Donatello's jaw dropped as he read the e-mail. A dead language? The language of heavenly messengers? It couldn't be...could it?  
  
He shook his head. No, that wasn't possible. There was no such thing as 'heavenly messengers'. But Sasha's token was like new, and had definitely not come from Ancient Israel, so perhaps that meant she knew someone like Professor Gotee, someone who had studied this "Seraphimian".  
  
A noise behind him jerked Donatello out of his thoughts. Looking up, he found Michelangelo standing nearby, looking unsure as to whether or not he should disturb his brother.  
  
"What's up Mikey?" Donatello asked, saving the e-mail to show Leonardo.  
  
"Not much. It's getting dark out, so I was wonderin' if you wanted to head topside for a little Christmas shopping. We're all goin'," Michelangelo explained.  
  
Donatello looked from Mikey to his computer, and then back again. He realized that his eyes were starting to water from looking at the screen for so long. "Sure, Mikey, I'll come. Gimme a second." Donatello reached over and shut off his computer screen.  
  
Standing up felt good, and stretching felt even better. Donnie followed Michelangelo out into the living room where Leonardo and Raphael were already getting their trench coats, fedoras, gloves, and boots on. Sasha was lounging on the couch, flipping through one of Mikey's comic books.  
  
"You're not coming along, Sasha?" Donnie asked her, getting dressed.  
  
"No," Sasha sighed. "Leo doesn't think it will be a good idea."  
  
"I just don't want to give the Foot another chance to attack you," Leo replied, a little shortly. His tone of voice suggested that there had been a debate on the subject recently.  
  
Sasha rolled her eyes.  
  
"Don't worry, Dudette," Mikey said with a smile. "If you want, you can roll out that cookie dough we made, and cut out some cookies. Just make sure you use newspaper to cover the table when you take the cookies out of the oven so they can cool on the table. Ok?"  
  
"Sure, plentent, whatever."  
  
"Plentent?" Donatello repeated. "What does that mean?"  
  
"It means about the same thing as 'okay'?"  
  
Donatello raised an eyebrow, bringing a smirk from Raph. "She's been doing that all day, just inserting random-sounding words into her sentences. It's been getting annoying."  
  
"You have no idea," Sasha said, turning the page of the comic. "You guys have fun. If you run into the jerks who attacked me, feel free to hurt them severely."  
  
"Our pleasure," Raph said with a mocking bow, and then followed Mikey and Leo out of the lair. Donatello took up the rear. Before leaving, he turned to Sasha.  
  
"Hey, Sasha, do you know any other language besides English? Are those words you've been using just gibberish?"  
  
"They're not gibberish, Donatello. They're real words. I'm starting to remember a language I used to know how to speak. It's kind of weird." She looked up at him. "Don't look so worried, Donnie. I'm not going crazy. They're just words. Now go on, enjoy topside enough for both of us." She turned her attention back to the comic book in her hands and seemed to totally tune Donatello out.  
  
Thinking about what she had just said, Donnie turned and hurried after his brothers. 


	13. XIII

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of their affiliates. I do, however, own Sasha, her Token, and the storyline of this fic.

XIII  
  
"...So what you're telling me is that Sasha's necklace is written in a dead language that no one understands?" Leo asked Donatello. They were walking through a large bookstore, looking for a present for April.  
  
"Yeah," Donatello said. "Seraphimian is what the Professor says it's called. It's the language of heavenly messengers, supposedly."  
  
"Did you tell Sasha about it yet?"  
  
Donatello shook his head. "I got the e-mail right before we left."  
  
"Oh. Hmmm...What about this?" Leonardo asked reaching out and pulling a huge book off of a shelf. The cover read: _Reaching a New Level: Meditation, the Key to Your Inner Self_.  
  
Donatello grinned at his older brother. "I don't think April has either the time or the patience for that book, Leo. How about this one?" He held up a copy of _Meditation for Dummies_.  
  
"That'll work, I guess," Leo said, returning the smile. "Should we look for something for Mikey in here, too?"  
  
"No, that's what FAO Schwartz is for," Donatello replied, heading for the check out. "The thing that really got me with what this guy said," he continued, "Was that he said one of the words on Sasha's Token was the name of this mythic warrior: 'Sashitaka'."  
  
"Sashitaka?" Leo tried the word in his mouth. "Didn't she say something like that that first night she was with us? Remember, when you touched her Token and she grabbed your arm?"  
  
Donatello's eyes widened. "Yeah! I had forgotten about that! I thought she was just mumbling from her fever or something. She did say Sashitaka, though."  
  
"Maybe that's her full name," Leo suggested. "Maybe she was named after this warrior person?"  
  
"I don't know. I was thinking maybe she knows someone who studies Seraphimian?" Donnie handed the cashier the money for the book. "She says she's starting to remember another language she used to speak. Remembering that might help her, too."  
  
"Maybe," Leo said with a nod. "Who's next on the list?"  
  
"Raphael..."  
  
The two turtles looked to each other and rolled their eyes.  
  
"Korn CDs sound good to you?"  
  
"Yeah. He'd like that."  
  
"And then he could stop using up my bandwidth downloading songs," Donatello grumbled.

Back at the lair, Sasha had finished the comic book she had been reading. She was now lying on her back, staring up at the ceiling, not really thinking about anything. Down time, that's what this was. Down time, a quiet place between the hectic panics her life seemed to mostly consist of. What these hectic times included, she wasn't sure, but with every dream she had about demons she became surer that they had to do with making her life hectic.  
  
Her tail twitched lazily beside her. It didn't like these down times. It was made for movement. A sound at the far end of the room caught Sasha's ears and her tail twitched in that direction, like a pointer dog pointing out a bird.  
  
"Ah, Sasha, you did not go out with my sons." Splinter appeared over the back of the couch and looked down at the girl stretched out on it.  
  
"No, I did not," she replied. "Your eldest son strictly forbade me from going out. He said it would be 'compromising my safety'." She made a face.  
  
"And you do not agree with Leonardo?"  
  
"I can take care of myself," Sasha replied. "As long as I have a sword, I can do anything."  
  
"I see. You are a true warrior, but not ninja," Splinter said.  
  
She sat up so that he face was almost level with Splinter. "Ninjas aren't the only type of warrior in the world, you know."  
  
Splinter nodded knowingly. "So I have learned. However, I would like to warn you that you are beginning to sound very much like my son Raphael."  
  
Sasha made a face and stood up. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but it's not natural for me to listen to other people's directions."  
  
"It is understandable. Would you be interested in some tea?" He turned and walked into the kitchen.  
  
Sasha winced at the suggestion. "Yeah, umm, Splinter, about the tea..."  
  
It was too late. Splinter had opened the tea drawer and saw that it was completely empty. He raised his eyebrows and looked to Sasha, who had a sheepish look on her face and her eyes looked a little more purple than normal. "I, uh...I've kind of been drinking an awful lot of tea lately."  
  
"I should say so. That is all right, we have an alternate plan. Hot chocolate?"  
  
"Yes please."  
  
While Splinter made the hot chocolate, Sasha walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out the cookie dough Michelangelo had made earlier. She wiped the kitchen table clean and then began to roll out part of the dough. Splinter watched with a smile. She may have been completely detached and cold during a battle, but doing this little chore made her seem warm and innocent. He placed her mug of hot chocolate and a basket of cookie cutters down on the table near her. "Do you mind if I help you?" he asked. "I helped my sons make these when they were small. But now it is only Michelangelo who is interested any more, and he often makes them when I am busy so that he will not be bothering me."  
  
Sasha smiled up at him, a peaceful, understanding, and happy look. "Be my guest."  
  
They worked in silence until all the cookies were cut out and placed in the oven to bake. Splinter then wiped off the table and began to lay newspaper down on it.  
  
"Hell fire!" Sasha suddenly cried. She grabbed a sheet of the newspaper off the table and held it close, reading a large article with a picture.  
  
"What is it child?" Splinter asked.  
  
Sasha murmured something to herself that Splinter didn't understand, and then she looked up at him. "What day did this paper come out?" she demanded. 


	14. XIV

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of their affiliates. I do, however, own Sasha, her Token, and the stroy line to this fic.

XIV  
  
Leonardo and Donatello met up with Raphael and Michelangelo outside Macy's. Michelangelo was laden with heavy shopping bags guaranteeing lots of great gifts. Raphael, on the other hand, held only two or three small plastic bags. His face was not exactly beaming with Christmas cheer.  
  
"You know, I'm starting to agree with the monkey-girl that humans are stupid. I mean, Christmas is one of the dumbest holidays ever created," Raph grumbled as Leo and Donnie walked up.  
  
"Oh, come on Raph," Mikey said. "Where's your holiday spirit?"  
  
"You got a double portion when they were handing it out, Mike," Raph snapped. "Someone had to go without."  
  
"You're such a Martyr," Leo answered, rolling his eyes. "You guys done for now? Good. Let's head back. Splinter will start to worry."  
  
They began the trek back to their underground home. On the way, Mikey reached into one of his bags and pulled out a small box. "I thought we oughta get something for Sasha," he said. "I mean, it is Christmas, and who else would give her a present? So I got her this. You guys can put your names on the card too, if you want."  
  
He handed the box over to Leo who opened it. Inside was a necklace with a silver angel on it. "Why'd you get her this, Mikey?" he asked, showing the necklace to Don and Raph.  
  
"Well, I thought it might look good with her Token. You know, they're both silver, they'd go together. Also, she's really pretty, kind of like an angel, you know? I thought it'd be a good present for her."  
  
Donnie gave his younger brother a pat on the head. "How cute. Mikey has a crush."  
  
"I do not Dude!"  
  
Donnie grinned. "Then why did you sleep on her bed the other night?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, I just fell asleep there. It's not like we did anything."  
  
"Sure you didn't."  
  
Mikey blushed and said nothing else.  
  
"It's cool, Mikey," Leo said with a smile, putting his arm over Mikey's shoulders. "It's a good gift. I'm sure she'll like it."  
  
They had come to the door to the lair. Donnie placed his hand on the doorknob, only to have the door yanked open by someone on the other side.  
  
To the turtles' surprise, Sasha was standing at the door, holding a newspaper in her hand.  
  
"Geez, give a guy a heart attack," Donatello said, walking in past Sasha.  
  
"What, you missed us so much you waited by the door all evening?" Raph sneered as he came in.  
  
Sasha threw him a dirty look and held up the newspaper to his face. It had been folded to a story on the inside. The picture that went along with the story was of some sort of large satchel or duffel bag. The headline read "Bag Found Along Public Beach". Raph skimmed the article. Apparently the bag had washed up on to the a public beach in a NYC police precinct, and was found to contain cloths, a large metal cylinder with strange writing on it, and a saber.  
  
"What the hell is a saber?" Raph snorted as Leo took the paper from Sasha and read it.  
  
"It's a type of sword," Donatello told him.  
  
"Ah." Raph turned back to Sasha. "And we care about this because...?"  
  
"Because it's mine," Sasha answered.  
  
Leo looked up from the article. "Are you sure?"  
  
"Yes. And I need it."  
  
"How can you be sure?"  
  
Sasha rolled her eyes. "Hello? Where have you been the past few days? I fight with a saber, and the writing on the cylinder probably matches my Token."  
  
"Are you positive it's yours?" Leo pressed, a frown coming over his face.  
  
"Yes! I might not have a memory, but I can recognize something that belongs to me."  
  
"Cool!" Mikey grinned at Sasha. "You're starting to remember that you own stuff."  
  
Sasha humored him with a grin, and then turned to Leo. "So, where's the precinct so we can go get it?"  
  
"Go get it?" Leo repeated. "Did you call the police station and tell them you wanted to claim it?"  
  
"Are you kidding?" Sasha said with a laugh. "There's no way they'd let anyone claim it. Didn't you read the article? They've confiscated it. Something about an unregistered weapon, and the writing on the cylinder matching the writing on some stolen artifact..."  
  
"Then how are we supposed to get it?" Leo asked.  
  
"Simple," Sasha said with a shrug. "We sneak in, get it, and sneak out. No one'll be the wiser."  
  
"No," came Leo's short and determined response. "We are not stealing from the police."  
  
"It's not stealing," Sasha replied. "It's just recovering what I've lost."  
  
"No."  
  
Sasha scowled. "Fine then, I'll find go get it myself."  
  
"No." A dangerous tone had come to Leo's voice. He couldn't believe this! She was acting so much like Raphael. What she was suggesting was too big of a risk.  
  
"Why not?" Sasha asked. She couldn't believe this! He was acting like her parent. What he didn't understand was that the bag was hers.  
  
"Sasha, listen to me," Leo said calmly, but still with the dangerous edge to his voice. "I know you want your duffel bag, I know you want your belongings," Leo said quietly. "But the Foot is after you. If you go out there, they might find you and then who knows what they'd do to you. And if you were caught breaking into the police station, what do you think the humans would do with you? They'd probably lock you up, if not shoot you on sight. And if the humans got you...well, look at yourself. You're not human! They'd lock you up on the soul reason that you're different!"  
  
Sasha's eyes flared red. "You can't keep me from going," she hissed, taking a step towards Leo.  
  
"I can, and I will. We'll take turns guarding the door tonight, making sure you don't get out. And even if you do get out, you'll trip just about every alarm we have down here in the tunnels. You can be mad at me if you want, but that's the way things have to be. You have to realize that this is for your own good."  
  
Sasha narrowed her eyes, but said nothing else. The argument was over, and for the time being Leo had won. He turned and left the room, followed by Donnie. When he was gone, Sasha's eyes snapped back to blue and she sank to the floor with a defeated look on her face. She stared down at the article in her hands, silently praying that she'd find a way to get her things back.  
  
Raph looked down at her. "Listen, kid, I'm gonna make something plain to you. I might get in fights with Leo a lot, but that don't mean I ain't loyal. You get in his face again, and I'm going to have to do something about it." He squatted down beside the girl and dropped his voice. "But you know, I do agree with you on one point. It is yours, and you should be allowed to get it back."  
  
Sasha looked up at him. "Yeah, but how am I supposed to get it if you guys are guarding my every move?" she asked.  
  
Raph smirked. "Just cause I'm loyal to Leo doesn't mean I follow his every command."  
  
Sasha raised a questioning eyebrow at him.  
  
"Don't worry 'bout it kid." He looked up to see Donnie coming in the room. "What's up, Don?"  
  
"Well, I got a reply to that post I put online about Sasha's necklace. I think it might be pretty accurate. Do you want to come take a look at it Sasha?" Donatello held out an inviting hand.  
  
Sasha nodded and stood up, casting another questioning look to Raph.  
  
"Go on, kid," Raph told her. "I've got everything covered. Don't worry 'bout it."  
  
"Does any of what Professor Gotee said make sense to you Sasha?" Donatello asked Sasha after giving her a few minutes to read the e-mail.  
  
A small smile was playing at the corners of her mouth. "Maybe humans aren't totally stupid," she murmured. She taped the screen over the word "Sashitaka". "That's the name humans call me most of the time...He calls the language Seraphimian? Seraphim are a type of angels, so it makes sense. But I'm not sure about the "releaser of many souls" part. I know how to fight, but I don't think I've ever killed anybody."  
  
"You sure seem able to, though," Leonardo said.  
  
She shrugged. "Just cause I'm able to doesn't mean I do it"  
  
"I hope you follow your own philosophy tonight," Leonardo replied, narrowing his eyes at her.  
  
"I'm not going to sneak out," Sasha snapped. "I'm not stupid enough to risk being kicked out of here. I might need my stuff, but it can wait...I guess."


	15. XV

Sorry it's been a few days. Thanks to all who have been reviewing. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of their affiliates. I do however own Sasha, her Token, Aadrano, and the story line.

XV  
  
That night, things went exactly as Raphael had planned them. He stole a sedative out of Donatello's medical cabinet without being caught. He then slipped the pill into Sasha's hot chocolate later while she and Mike were decorating cookies. She began to yawn about half an hour later, and then went to bed shortly thereafter. As soon as she was in bed, Leonardo set Michelangelo as the first watch. They each would take a two-hour shift guarding the door while the others slept.  
  
Raph's shift was right after Mikey's, from twelve thirty to two thirty. He showed up for it on time, grumbling about how stupid it was that they had to guard the door when the girl wasn't going to go anywhere.  
  
"You never know, Raph," Mikey said with a smile. "She's tricky. She might try something."  
  
But Raph knew for a fact that she wasn't going to be going anywhere. That sedative had a guarantee to last at least six hours, if not longer  
  
Once he was sure Michelangelo was asleep, Raph snuck out the door, closing it silently behind him.  
  
He headed through the tunnels, avoiding all the alarms and traps he and his brothers had set up to alert the lair of any intruders. He knew he would get hell for doing this when he was found out, but he didn't worry about that now. The kid needed her stuff, and Leo was being a prick about it. Not that that was any different than how Leo usually acted—he was always a prick, making them do everything by the rules. But Raph had seen that Sasha was exempt from almost all rules—a fact that Leo was totally blind to. Sasha was one of those people who made their own rules. She was like Raph in that way.  
  
Half an hour later, Raph found himself in the alley beside the police station where Sasha's belongings were being held. Considering the cylinder was connected in some way to a robbery, and her sword was an unregistered and illegal weapon, he figured that at least those two things were in the evidence room.  
  
He climbed onto a dumpster and then on to the fire escape of the building. He had to be careful, be silent. Be ninja. Or be shot dead.  
  
Slowly and quietly, Raphael mounted the fire escape. At every level, he peered in the window, looking for the rows of shelves that meant he had come to the evidence room. Finally, at the fifth floor, he found what he was looking for: A large room filled with row after row of metal shelves, filled with objects in marked plastic bags. There was a metal grid on his side of the window, meant to keep people out. Raph snorted and pulled out the large pair of wire cutters he had swiped from Donatello's workshop. Piece of cake.  
  
Ten minutes later, Raph was slowly prying the window up. He used a device that Donatello had created to scramble any possible security alarms hooked to the window.  
  
It was freaking cold out, and he worked as fast as he could. At one point he actually stopped and asked himself why he was freezing his butt off for the monkey-girl who was beginning to be more trouble than she was worth. "Simple," he finally told himself. "The sooner she gets this stuff, the sooner she remembers who she is and where she belongs. The sooner she remembers that, the sooner she'll leave. Besides, that necklace Mike got her is a lame Christmas present."  
  
Once he finally had the window open, Raph slid inside the room. Now, where on earth would those things be? To his surprise, they weren't all that hard to find. The saber was the only sword in the weapons area, everything else being either knives or guns. And the cylinder was easy to find since it was the only thing that looked like it did. The bag was more difficult to find, but find it he did. Even though it looked empty, when he picked it up, it felt as if there was something inside it. He took a quick look into the bag. Inside, he saw small toys, flowers, leaves, and other random objects. Shrugging, he slid the saber and cylinder into the bag and then hurried to the window.  
  
The job had been simple, and as he climbed outside and closed the window, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed that it hadn't been more challenging.  
  
He turned to head down the fire escape and found himself face to face with one of the most freakish people he had ever seen. The boy had silver hair, a tail, and a Token, just like Sasha. But, unlike Sasha, his eyes had no pupils, and in the darkness, they glowed an eerie blue-gray.  
  
"Hello Raphael," he said, his voice thick with false politeness. He grinned, and his mouth was full of sharp pointed teeth.  
  
Raph went for one of his sais with his free hand, but the boy reached out and grabbed his arm. The boy's grip was icy cold and sent shivers up Raph's spine.  
  
"Who the Hell are you?" Raph demanded.  
  
The boy's grin widened. "Ironic choice of words. I'm an...acquaintance of your current houseguest, Sasha. The name's Aadrano." He eyed the satchel slung over Raph's shoulder. "I see the warrior will be receiving her field assignments. Dammit. Next time, I just need to work harder on hiding them, eh?"  
  
Raph tried to break free from the boy's grip. Instead of letting go, Aadrano tightened his grip and with a surprising amount of strength, he pulled Raph closer. "Listen to me, you oversized pet shop terrapin," he hissed, his eyes now glowing red. "You run back to your lair and tell your little friend that the Shredder and I are getting impatient with her. If we don't get an answer soon, she'll have to answer in a different way. Got it?"  
  
Raph glared at the strange creature—for it definitely was not a human boy. "What makes you think I'd tell her something like that, freak?"  
  
Dark bat-like wings suddenly sprouted from Aadrano's back and two small horns sprouted from his head. Raph shuttered as he watched the demon that often haunted his dreams take full form before him. "If you don't give that brat Sasha my message, then I'll visit your dreams tonight. And you won't enjoy it."  
  
Then, suddenly, Aadrano was gone, and Raph was alone on the fire escape. He looked around, wondering where the demon had gone, but saw no one.  
  
Shaken and confused, Raph headed back down to the lair; looking behind every few steps to make sure he wasn't being followed. Only two thoughts ran through his head. One was he hoped that he had been just seeing things with Aadrano. The second was that if he hadn't just been seeing things, then Sasha had a lot of explaining to do.  
  
When Raph got back home, he found Splinter sitting up, waiting for him. Splinter didn't say a word as Raph came in and closed the door. He only spoke when Raph finally came over and sat beside him.  
  
"Did you retrieve Sasha's belongings?" Splinter asked.  
  
"Yes Master Splinter," Raphael said.  
  
Splinter sighed and looked deep into his son's eyes. "I sense that both a great good and a great sorrow have been set into motion by your actions. Raphael, why did you disobey your brother's wishes?"  
  
"The kid needs her stuff, Master. What if it's all she has? Besides, I figured that if I didn't go get it, she probably would have gone herself."  
  
"I had the same feeling as well. Sasha is much like you, very head strong. I am also grateful that you went instead of Sasha. Leonardo will definitely rebuke you for going, but I have no fear of either of you hurting the other, should the confrontation turn physical. Sasha, however..."  
  
"She'd kill him without another thought," Raph said with a nod.  
  
"Yes. I am sure she does not hate Leonardo, and she might even like him to a certain extent. But after her display of fighting skills, and the indifference she feels towards her enemies, I am wary of her, as you and your brothers should be as well."  
  
Raphael nodded and said nothing. Splinter was scared of this girl. That was never a good sign.  
  
"Were you seen?" Splinter finally asked.  
  
Raphael nodded. "When I was leaving the police station. There was a boy on the fire escape. This is going to sound crazy, but he looked just like Sasha, only...evil. Maybe I was just seeing things."  
  
"You were not seeing things. Sasha was visited by the same person a few nights ago."  
  
"How do you know?"  
  
Splinter allowed a small smile to escape him. "She told me. She did not remember who he was, except that he was an enemy."  
  
"He said his name was Aadrano. And that he and Shredder are waiting for some sort of answer from her."  
  
"Then, my son, we must discover both the question and the answer before either the Shredder or Aadrano get to her." Splinter heaved a sigh, revealing to Raphael for the first time just exactly how old he was. "Do not announce your venture to Leonardo tonight. Go quickly and place Sasha's belongings in your room, and then come right back. Leonardo will be getting up at any moment for his shift."  
  
"Yes, Master Splinter," Raph said, rising from his seat. He hurried to his room and stashed the bag beneath his bed and then returned to the living room. Leonardo appeared a few minutes later, ready to take his guard post. Raph grunted a good night to his older brother and went to bed.


	16. XVI

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of their affiliates. I do however own Sasha, her Token, Aadrano, and the storyline.

XVI  
  
Sasha moaned softly as she opened her eyes. Her head and stomach felt funny, as if she had eaten something that had gone bad, or as if she had drunk too much the night before.  
  
She could hear the turtles in the living room, talking. Sasha glanced at the clock. Good Lord, it was 9:30! How had she managed to sleep so much?  
  
She swung her feet over the edge of the bed and stood up. It was cold in the infirmary—the kerosene heater was out again. Just her luck. She stepped into her boots and went out into the living room.  
  
Something was wrong. Leonardo was very angry, and he was glaring at Raphael. Raph didn't look too happy either.  
  
"I don't get it, Leo!" Raph was saying. "It's not like I was seen!"  
  
"That's not the point, Raph, and you know it," Leonardo replied crossing his hands over his chest. "The point is you deliberately disobeyed me."  
  
"If I remember correctly, you said 'we' weren't going to go. You never said anything about only one of us going." He opened his mouth to say something else, but he caught sight of Sasha standing by the infirmary door. "Hey kid," he said. "I got something for you." He reached over the couch and pulled up a large bag. Sasha's eyes went wide as he tossed it to her.  
  
Sasha caught it, and immediately a flood of memory came rushing back. Gabriel handing it to her. Her wearing it over her shoulder. Her placing the items she received from people inside. Her leaving it different places with food in it.  
  
She dropped to her knees and flung the bag open. The argument between Leonardo and Raphael continued, but Sasha paid no attention. Michelangelo came over and crouched down beside her, watching as she took things out of the bag, one by one.  
  
First, she pulled out a small teddy bear. It was worn and looked well loved.  
  
"Is that yours?" Mikey asked.  
  
The memory came to Sasha. A small boy, cancer coursing through his body, lying on the bed beside Sasha as she read him one last bed time story. "No," she said. "It was Danny Catone's. He died from leukemia a little while ago."  
  
"Oh." He watched as she pulled out a string of sea shells. "What about that?"  
  
She shook her head. "Another kid gave me this. She...she was wearing it when the car hit her on her bike." Sasha shook her head again, trying to bring more of the memory back. She looked into the bag: more faces, mostly children, close to death. The memories partly horrified her, partly confused her. She didn't pull anymore of their gifts out of the bag. Instead, she pulled out her saber.  
  
It was long, the blade being about thirty inches and the hilt about eight inches. It was in a silver scabbard. She took the hilt in one hand and drew the blade, making a ringing sound fill the air of the room. One edge of the shining silver sword had been sharpened to perfection. Along the blade there were words written in Seraphimian. Sasha held the blade closer and moved her mouth, trying to remember what the words said. She couldn't make it out.  
  
"Damnation!" she hissed. "Damnation and Hell Fire! If I could only read what this says, then I would know who I am!"  
  
"What about this?" Michelangelo handed her the silver cylinder. "It looks like a larger version of your Token, but with more writing."  
  
"You're right," she said, taking the cylinder in her free hand. She stared at the writing on the outside. While she stared, the symbols began to do funny things. They began to glow and seemed to move all around on the surface of the container until they no longer were words, but seemed to form two pictures in her mind. One picture was of her cutting down winged demons left and right with her sword. The other picture was of her praying over a dead body, releasing the person's soul into Judgment and the Afterlife beyond it.  
  
She slowly raised her eyes up to Raphael and Leonardo, who were still in the full swing of their argument. She cleared her throat loudly and they turned to her.  
  
"I've remembered something major," she told them. "When the myth says Sashitaka was a 'Releaser of Souls', that didn't mean she was a warrior who killed people. She was the Angel of Death, and she guided the souls to the Afterlife."  
  
"That's great, Sasha," Raph sneered. "But can we have Ancient Literature class a little later when we're not so busy?"  
  
"That's not all I remember," Sasha went on. "I also remember...those myths are about me."  
  
Donatello's eyes widened. "What are you telling us, Sasha?"  
  
She looked up into his eyes. "My name is Sashitaka. I am the Angel of Death."

Oooo! Cliff hanger ending! Don't worry, the next chapter should be up no later than tomorrow. Review please, or my ego will be hurt.--EBTS


	17. XVII

A/N: Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated in a while. School has been a  
major pain, but it's okay—only 29 more days till graduation!!!!  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of their affiliates. I do however own Sasha, her Token, Aadrano, and the storyline.  
  
XVII  
  
The turtles all stared blankly at her.  
  
"You mind repeating that?" Raph asked. "Great, just great. Knowing my luck, that Valium I gave her last night probably screwed up her head."  
  
"You gave her valium?" Donatello cried. "Raph, what were you thinking?"  
  
Raph shrugged. "What? I needed to make sure she'd sleep all night, and that she didn't leave while I was gone."  
  
"So you gave her Valium? Raph, if you had given her too much, you could have killed her!"  
  
"I'm an angel. I can't die. What's Valium?" Sasha looked from Raphael to Donatello, a slightly confused look on her face.  
  
"It's a depressant, usually used as a severe pain killer. One of its side effects is drowsiness," Donatello explained.  
  
"Oh," Sasha nodded. "What does that mean?"  
  
"He'll tell you later," Leonardo replied, breaking into the conversation. "Now, Sasha, what's this about being the Angel of Death?"  
  
Sasha scrunched her eyebrows together in concentration. "It's the title humans gave me. They call me the Angel of Death. But that's not really true. I don't kill people. I just release their souls when they die. I guess they call me the Angel of Death because I'm present at the time of death."  
  
The turtles all exchanged incredulous looks.  
  
"Huh, Dudette, not to sound like a total idiot," Mikey said. "But if you're an angel, where are your wings?"  
  
"I don't have any," Sasha explained. "Only Seraphim and Cherubim have wings. I'm not a Seraph or a Cherub. I'm a Sasha. I don't get wings."  
  
"What?" Donatello asked. "What the heck are you talking about?"  
  
Sasha looked from one turtle to another, reading their confused faces. "You guys have never heard any of the Writings, have you?"  
  
"No, can't say we have," Raph said. "Mind cluing us in?"  
  
Sasha sighed. "Sure. Okay, you have three different kinds of angels that serve the Master. First you have the two most common kinds: Seraphim and Cherubim. They basically are the ones that stay Upstairs, worshipping the Master. Sure, they sometimes fight in the Angelic Wars, but not all the time. They are basically the whole "Heavenly Choir" people. The thing with them though, is that they are so brilliant and so beautiful, that if humans were to look at them face to face, the humans' eyes would burn out of their sockets. There are slight differences between the Cherubim and Seraphim, but I won't get into that right now. The third group consists of all the other servants to Master. We're the angels that deal directly with humans. There used to be a whole bunch of us, but now it's just down to me, Gabriel, and Michael."  
  
"What happened to the rest of your group?" Leonardo asked.  
  
"Oh, they rebelled against the Master, if I remember correctly. Yeah, that's what happened. Lucifer wanted all the power for himself, so he led the others in a rebellion. They got kicked out, Damned for all eternity. Now Lucifer is the Dark Angel, and all the others are his subordinates—the demons."  
  
Raph frowned. "Did one of these guys go by the name of Aadrano?"  
  
Sasha's face went pale. That was the name of the boy who had visited her a few nights before! "H-how do you know that name?"  
  
"I had a little run-in with him while I was out getting your stuff. Who is he?"  
  
She took a deep breath. "I guess you could say he's my brother."  
  
"Your brother?" Raph demanded.  
  
"He looks like me, doesn't he?" Sasha replied. "We were created at the same time. We used to work together. He was my closest friend. Now he's a demon, twisted by Lucifer's lies and evil ways." Her face darkened as she spoke.  
  
"Yeah, he acted sort of like you. Big grin, kind of aggressive..."  
  
Sasha's eyes widened. "What did he do when you met him?"  
  
"Yeah, that's what I wanna talk to you about. He said somethin' about you givin' him and Shredder an answer real soon. Got pretty pushy about it--"  
  
The rest of the turtles went rigid and looked to Sasha, suddenly very wary of her.  
  
"What question would the Shredder want you to answer?" Leonardo asked cautiously.  
  
Sasha shook her head quickly. "I don't know, I don't remember. Gimme a second, lemme think." She shut her eyes tight and concentrated with all her might on her memories of Aadrano. Nothing useful came up at first, but then a light suddenly went off in Sasha's head, causing her eyes to fly open. "Raph, did he touch you?"  
  
"What?" Raph's eyes widened in surprise.  
  
"Did he touch you? At all? Even just a light tap on the shoulder or something?"  
  
"Well, he grabbed my wrist...why?"  
  
Sasha took a step away from Raph, her eyes wide in fear. "If he touches someone, he can track them. He can sense them wherever they are, and he can find them easily. If he touched you, then we're in a bad position."  
  
"Does that mean he's probably on his way here right now?" Leonardo said, drawing his katanas.  
  
"No." Sasha smirked a little. "He relies too much on his intimidation abilities. He thinks that just by threatening Raph or me that we'll do what he wants. I was always the brains of our outfit."  
  
"But why would Shredder wanna join forces with this demon guy?" Michelangelo asked. "I mean, what could he get out of it?"  
  
"Depends on what Aadrano has to offer. If this is just an 'Aadrano whim', then it's probably all just a bunch of lies that he's using to make a fool out of Shredder. But if Lucifer is backing it, then..." she trailed off, leaving the suggestion that having Lucifer in charge was the worst possible scenario.  
  
"So, what do we do? Just sit here and wait for Aadrano to get fed up and come after you?" Leonardo asked.  
  
Sasha shrugged. "I'm all for it. I personally was not created to go out looking for a fight. Of course, the down side to that would be that this Shredder would know where you live. But, hey, there are consequences to every action."  
  
Donatello frowned. "But that's no good. The way I see it, Sasha needs to figure out what Shredder and Aadrano want from her and fast—before Aadrano decides to play 'find the turtle'."  
  
Michelangelo pointed to the cylinder still in Sasha's hand. "What about that? Seeing that made you remember stuff. You think you can get anything else from it?"  
  
Sasha looked down at the metal cylinder. The emerald and ruby symbols glowed brightly under her gaze. It was too light to be solid metal, meaning it had to be hollow. Another memory stirred inside her. "This is something I've always had. It has something inside it, some sort of scroll or something. But I don't know what it is."  
  
"Well, why don't we open it and find out?" Donatello suggested.  
  
"No," Sasha said simply. "Only I can open it. Sort of like my Token—only I can take it off. And this cylinder will only open when the time has come. I've never known what's in it."  
  
Michelangelo frowned. "Every time we seem to be about to solve the mystery, we hit a brick wall."  
  
Sasha rolled her eyes. "Welcome to my world. It seems every time I have humans all figured out, they go and do something that totally contradicts everything I thought I knew." She shrugged, and the movement caused her stomach to move unpleasantly. "I'm going to make some tea. Whatever that Valium stuff Raph gave me is, my stomach definitely does not like it." 


	18. XVIII

XVIII  
  
Even though the turtles wanted to keep talking about Sasha's newfound memories, and the dangers of Aadrano working with the Shredder, Sasha refused to talk to them until her tea was finished. She needed time to think to herself, to try to sort things out with her memories.  
  
Aadrano...that name stirred up all kinds of feelings within her. She felt a longing for him, like anyone would for a lost sibling, but she also felt a deep hatred as well. She remembered sitting around and talking with him while they waited for their next assignments. She remembered sitting and talking with Lucifer too, and the other angels that rebelled. They had all been such great friends...perhaps too great. Everyone had trusted Lucifer; everyone had loved him. So when he had started suggesting that maybe the Master wasn't the only one who should have all the power over the Universe, no one really disputed the idea. Except for Sasha. Sasha had always been close to Master, much closer than the rest of them. And Gabriel and Michael had been close to the Master as well, so when Lucifer started whispers of rebellion, they joined Sasha on the outskirts of the group, and finally left the group altogether, and Sasha followed with a heavy heart.  
  
After the rebellion, the only time Sasha saw any of her old friends was when she was sent to put a stop to them. They had lost most of their power after being thrown from heaven, and so she could easily handle them. She shuddered as she remembered how many of her former friends she had run through with her saber. She pushed the thought away. She didn't want to think about it.  
  
Instead, she turned her focus on Michelangelo, who was leaning against a counter, playing punch-for-punch with Raphael. The young turtle laughed and grinned as he and his brother horsed around. It made Sasha glad to see him so happy. If she were to ever fall in love, like humans did, he would be the type of person she would chose to fall in love with: happy, easy going, positive—something to combat all the dying she saw on a daily basis.  
  
Dying...she grimaced at the thought. She had never complained about her job of releasing souls, but lately it had begun to weigh down on her. Sasha found herself actually longing for situation she had been in just minutes before, where she did not remember that she was an angel, but she thought she was just a normal person. She silently wished that she could become anything but the Angel of Death, and then quickly rebuked herself. Someone had to do her job. And just because it wrenched her heart every time she had to tell a little kid that they wouldn't see Mommy or Daddy again, or an elderly person that their grandchild would never know them—just because she nearly broke down crying every time something like that happened—it did not mean that Sasha had the right to throw in the towel. It simply meant that she had to suck it up, suppress her emotions, and concentrate solely on the task at hand. Forget about the people, Sasha, they're just humans, they have to die anyway.  
  
"Sasha? Are you okay?" Donatello's voice seemed to reach Sasha's ears from far away, slowly pulling her back, away from her thoughts. As she surfaced, Donatello went on: "Nice one, Raphael. If she is an Angel, she's probably never used any type of pharmaceutical drug or other. That Valium you gave her probably sent her into shock."  
  
"I'm fine," Sasha said, shaking her head briskly to clear it. "I was just thinking. What's up?"  
  
"Do you remember anything else?" Leonardo asked, sitting down across the table from her.  
  
"Besides every person I've seen die?" she asked, a slight tremor in her voice. The turtles all gave her confused and worried looks. She laughed. "Never mind. Besides releasing people's souls, I fight the Dark Angel and his demons. They're the ones I use my saber on. I've never killed a human with it, but I've killed plenty of demons."  
  
"But still no memory of the Shredder or the Foot clan?" Leonardo asked.  
  
Sasha thought for a moment, and then her eyes went wide. "The Foot Clan! I know that organization! I've released a lot of souls that they killed. But I still have no idea who Shredder is."  
  
Leonardo frowned. "That tells us nothing. Are you sure you don't remember what the Shredder wants you to answer?" Sasha shook her head and he sighed. "Well, then we'll just have to stay on guard and hope you remember before Aadrano decides to take any action." He stood up and looked around the room. "I'll be in the dojo if anyone needs me."  
  
The meeting broke up. Leonardo went to the dojo, Raphael went to watch TV, and Donatello disappeared into his lab. Sasha and Michelangelo were left in the kitchen to fend for themselves. Neither of them spoke for a while and simply enjoyed each other's company.  
  
"Are you really an Angel, Sasha?"  
  
The girl looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah, Mikey, I am."  
  
"Do you like being an angel?" He walked over and sat down across the table from Sasha. Her eyes remained fixed on the ceiling.  
  
"No," she said. "I don't like it." She turned her eyes to the young turtle across the table from her and gave him small, sad smile. "I'm the Angel with the most hellish job. I get to watch people die. Every death that has ever occurred I have witnessed. The ones I like best are the ones when the person is old and has lived a full life and is ready to die. I hate the ones when I have to take a child—they have so much to live for, but they can't. The worst ones though...those were the ones at Hiroshima and Nagasaki." She closed her eyes at the memory. "Most of those people, it took me along time to find their souls because their bodies had been vaporized. The others...it's horrifying what humans do to each other. Until this century, I could stand my job. I mean, at least the Black Plague wasn't used to kill a certain group of people, and a sword can only kill one person at a time. Humans weren't made to be vaporized or gassed. I wasn't made to deal with it. But I'm not going to quit. I'm not going to turn into another Lucifer—refusing the Master. I'm not going to be like my brother."  
  
Michelangelo frowned. He reached over the table and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up into his eyes. "Listen, Sasha, it'll be alright, ok? You're stronger than them. You won't give up. I can see it in your eyes. And if things ever get really bad, you can always talk to someone."  
  
Sasha gave a small smile at that. "The angel of Death asking for advice from a mortal. Yeah, like the others would ever let me live that down."  
  
Mikey returned her smile, and reluctantly removed his hand from her shoulder. He was really beginning to like her.  
  
"Hey, Mikey, what can you tell me about this Shredder person?"  
  
"Nothing good." Michelangelo proceeded to tell her of his family's archenemy, the leader of the Foot Clan. All the while he talked, the frown on Sasha's face grew. After he finished, she was silent for a while, and sat staring up at the ceiling.  
  
Finally, after almost twenty minutes, she turned her eyes back to Michelangelo. "I can't do this to you all," she said. "I can't stay here. Aadrano is too dangerous, and by staying here, I'm putting you all in danger. You all shouldn't have to deal with my problems."  
  
"Sasha, if we didn't want to deal with your problems, we wouldn't have let you stay," Mikey said. "Listen, whatever Shredder wants, we can help you with it, ok? Don't give up hope on us just yet."  
  
Sasha looked into his eyes, searching for a moment. She then gave a small smile and a nod. "Hope is my middle name." 


	19. XIX

A/N Hey all. Sorry I haven't updated in a long time, but can anyone say FINALS WEEK? Gaa, I hate school...I will post more on Monday or Tuesday, but you'll have to make do with this till then.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or any of their affiliates. I only own Sasha, her Token, Aadrano, and the plot.  
  
XIX  
  
Aadrano perched on the rails of a fire escape overlooking the manhole the turtles normally used as an entrance and an exit to the sewers. His link with the turtle Raphael was paying off. For the past few days, the turtles and Sasha had been talking, weighing their options. And if Aadrano was reading Raphael's emotions and movements correctly, then tonight, Christmas Eve, the five would make their way to Shredder's lair for a face-off.  
  
A child on the other side of the window was screaming bloody murder about a monster being outside his window. Aadrano listened, amused, as him mother insisted that there was nothing on the fire escape. Stupid humans. Why was it that children, the youngest form of the species, were wise enough to identify danger and evil, while their parents were ignorant to the whole thing?  
  
"Tim, there's nothing out there," the mother was saying. "Monsters don't exist, so stop crying."  
  
The child continued in his screaming fit.  
  
Below in the ally, the manhole cover was moving. Aadrano watched as the turtles ascended from the dank sewers beneath one at a time, followed at length by Sasha. She had her saber at her side and her Token still around her neck. She looked scared for the first time he could remember. The sight actually made Aadrano laugh. She deserved to be scared.  
  
The group cautiously made their way up the fire escape across the alley from Aadrano to the rooftop and then disappeared from sight. Aadrano smiled and opened his wings, causing the child to scream louder.  
  
"MAMA! THERE'S A MONSTER OUT THERE! HE'S GONNA EAT ME!"  
  
"Timothy," the mother said, frustrated with her son for his stuborness. "If you do not stop crying this instant, you get a time out. There are no such things as monsters, and nothing's going to hurt—"  
  
She was cut short as the window her son had been pointing at suddenly shattered into a million pieces, the glass flying everywhere. When she filed a report with the police later, it would go down as one of those unexplained phenomenon, for there was no rock in the apartment, or evidence of a person ever being on the fire escape. Aadrano knew this, and smiled as he brushed bits of glass off his fist. Humans were more scared of what they couldn't explain than even the most far-fetched truth.  
  
Aadrano followed the group of five warriors at a distance, flying above the rooftops. The turtles knew exactly what warehouse to find the Shredder in, but they didn't know the greater threat was following them silently behind.  
  
The Demon of Warfare let out a small giggle of evil glee. Brother and sister were going to have a little reunion.

"There's the warehouse," Leonardo whispered to Sasha. He was pointing at a large building across the lot.  
  
"Okay," Sasha said. "Now what?"  
  
"Just follow us and try to keep up," Mikey answered with a grin as he and his brothers began to move along in the shadows silently towards the warehouse. They were slightly crouched, making sure to use any coverage they could. Sasha glanced up at the sky. She could have sworn a shadow had just passed over her, but the sky was clear. Shrugging, Sasha followed the turtles, keeping low.  
  
Upon reaching the warehouse, the group came across a pair of Foot Soldiers standing a midnight guard. Leonardo and Raphael took them out before they knew what hit them.  
  
Donatello pulled out a rope and grappling hook and threw it up to the roof of the warehouse. Making sure it was secure, he turned and grinned at the others. "Who's first?"  
  
Leonardo went first, then Raph, and then Sasha. Michelangelo and Donatello took up the rear.  
  
Sasha had never scaled a building like this before. Usually when she had to get someplace, she would just show up there. But she couldn't' remember how to teleport yet.  
  
When Sasha got on to the roof, she took a quick glance around. Leo and Raph were helping the others. From what she saw, there was a large skylight window in the middle of the roof, which probably looked down to at least the floor below, if not all the way to the ground floor. But what caught her eye even more was a strange black shadow over near a utility shed. Night patrol. It was her turn to take out some guards.  
  
Sasha took off at running speed, heading straight for the three men. They pulled out weapons. One took a swing at her with a katana, but she ducked and punched him hard in the gut. She then used her tail to pull another enemy's legs out from under him, reveling slightly when the sharp crack from his fall told her he wouldn't be a problem anytime soon. She turned to the third enemy, who was backing up a little bit towards the edge of the roof. She glared at him and then leapt, kicking his chest in midair. He stumbled backwards and then before anything could be done, he stepped on a place where there was no roof and fell to the ground forty feet below.  
  
Sasha's eyes widened. She had never killed a person before. Never a human. She shivered and backed away from the edge of the roof. She heard footsteps coming up behind her, and turning, she saw that it was the turtles.  
  
"Are you okay?" Leonardo asked.  
  
Sasha blinked slowly and then shrugged her shoulder. "I'm fine," she said in a voice that didn't sound fine. "I took care of the night guard duty."  
  
Leonardo nodded and then motioned for them all to follow him. They went over to the skylight and peered down into the building below. Through the window, Sasha saw a man dressed in a strange costume, with metal blades sticking out of it, and a helmet made out of metal on his head. He looked so familiar. She knew him, and she knew she didn't like him.  
  
"Is that the Shredder?" she whispered to Michelangelo.  
  
"Yeah. You recognize him?"  
  
She shrugged. "Sort of. I just wish I could get a closer look."  
  
As she finished her sentence, someone suddenly plowed into her from above and behind, pushing her through the glass of the skylight and forcing her down four stories to the ground below.


End file.
